Donald at Boroughmuir High Peer Education Project

Hi, I’m Donald and I’m a volunteer with Fast Forward. I’ve been with the organisation for just over a year.

I started volunteering with Fast Forward in order to gain some experience working with young people in a community education setting.

Since I’ve been here I’ve learnt a huge amount about the different aspects of youth work. I’ve been trained in various areas such as smoking, drug and alcohol education, as well as how to train peer educators and facilitate sessions.

The great thing about volunteering with Fast Forward is that there are so many opportunities to gain experience in different settings.

Since starting here, I have had the chance to help lead and plan work shops in schools, youth groups and national events.

At the moment I mainly work with Jay on the Boroughmuir Peer Education Project, which has been great fun. I have developed weekly session plans for a 12 week programme, designed to train 21 young people to be peer educators, enabling them to put together a toolkit of education resources for the S1 in Boroughmuir High School. It has been a really rewarding experience being part of a long term project from the very beginning and seeing something I have helped plan, in action!

If you’re between 16 and 25 years old and interested in volunteering for Fast Forward contact our volunteer co-ordinator Chiara