Children & safeguarding 🛡️👧🏽👦🏻
Image: Waddie96 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
This page includes current and older posts connected with volunteering around children, schools, youth programmes and community organisations. Some listings were published before Voluntouring.org adopted its current safeguarding standards and may now be outdated or unsuitable.
Voluntouring.org does not promote orphanage volunteering, residential childcare volunteering or experiences that give short-term visitors unrestricted access to vulnerable children.
Safeguarding comes first 🛡️
Any role involving children should have a clearly defined purpose, appropriate screening and training, professional supervision, clear boundaries and strict rules on privacy, photography and social media. Volunteers should support qualified local staff rather than replace them or take independent responsibility for children.
Safer ways to support child-focused organisations
Many useful volunteer roles do not require direct or unsupervised contact with children. Depending on the organisation, volunteers may support administration, communications, fundraising, logistics, translation, research, gardening, maintenance or other activities that strengthen local services and staff.
For a fuller explanation of safer models and common red flags, read volunteering with children: safer alternatives. You can also read Voluntouring’s updated guidance on orphanage volunteering and institutional care.
How to use this page
Check the publication date and treat older listings with particular caution. Before applying to any role involving children, ask for the organisation’s safeguarding policy, screening procedures, volunteer training, supervision arrangements and rules concerning photos, personal information and contact outside programme activities.
Avoid opportunities where short-term visitors are offered immediate one-to-one access to children, where safeguarding procedures are unclear or where donations or fees appear to purchase access to children.
If you notice an older listing that appears unsafe, misleading or inconsistent with current standards, please report the page to Voluntouring.org.
Publication on Voluntouring.org does not constitute verification or endorsement of an organisation or its safeguarding practices.
Related pages: Teaching · School projects · Youth empowerment
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Browse child-focused volunteering and safeguarding resources 🛡️👧🏽👦🏻
Browse the posts below with care. Some older announcements may no longer reflect current safeguarding standards or may remain online for archival and educational purposes.
Do you represent an organisation offering a clearly defined, supervised and safeguarding-compliant role for adult volunteers? You can submit the opportunity to Voluntouring.org for editorial review.
