Our volunteers

NEA is about personal development. Many who have come to know the centres through studies, through their own children, and through friends have come to give their time as volunteers running activities.

In Kelston and Westpark, for example, older members from the Study Centre help out the leadership team in running the Junior section of the club. Much use is made of the common immediately facing the club in both centres, and treasure hunts, making short films and initiative tests often take place in the locality.

Student volunteers often give up time to help in club activities, sometimes committing themselves to come each week. The computer room in Kelston is well used for coursework, and for producing the club magazine The Bystander. Some of the boys enjoy putting together the computers themselves, adding new hardware or upgrading the specification.

The study room at Kelston and Westpark is always available for private study after school in the afternoons during the week and right through the weekends. Some weekday evenings there are special times for study, cultural activities and planning future club events.

For all age-groups, some time is also put aside for supervised private study. Students and young professionals give up their time to sit in the study room and answer any queries the young people might have.

Sometimes, parents of those attending the club help out in an activity in which they are experts, such as karate, football, guitar playing or creative writing. A very successful activity called 'What makes good television?' was run in Kelston in 2003. While a club member sits behind the camera, another takes his turn to read the news streaming in all the while from the 'news agency'. A third person waits in the background as a reporter on location to be brought into the live news programme. The activity was made possible by the input of an adult volunteer who works for a TV company and who agreed to give up a day running it.