Volunteers needed!

Description

Super Power Agency is a literacy charity based in Edinburgh. Our mission is to help young people in Scotland write their story. Our writing programmes allow young people to discover their confidence and imagination, and in turn aim to increase literacy rates in Scotland. We run creative writing workshops in schools, building self-belief and engagement, and print young peoples' work in anthologies at the conclusion of each project so they become published authors.

Volunteers

Working in some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged and under-resourced areas, we aim to make learning fun. Our workshops encourage and empower young people to put pen to paper, build their writing skills and to express themselves with confidence. In doing so, we hope no young person in Scotland will leave school without the confidence to write. Please can you help us to help young people write their story?

We rely on a team of amazing volunteers who support our work in schools and remotely. In 2023-24, our volunteers gave us over 350 hours in the classroom and over 60 hours remote editing time, engaging with more than 1000 young people! You don't need to be an amazing writer to volunteer with us, you just need to believe in the power of words to change the world!

We have two main volunteer opportunities:

1. Writing Mentor: This is where you can help directly with our young people in the classroom. In most workshops you’ll be working with around four students. Your main task will be to support and gently ask questions as they write their pieces, encouraging them to believe in themselves and their work. You don’t have to be a writer to be one of our writing mentors – you give young people superpowers through encouragement and enthusiasm.

We won’t make you wear a cape, but you will definitely feel like a superhero.

2. E.L.E.P.H.A.N.T. If you’d like to be involved but find it difficult during typical school hours, then the Extraordinary League of Editors, Proofreaders, Helpers And Nifty Typists (E.L.E.P.H.A.N.T.) might be the editing collective for you! This is back-end remote volunteering, and is integral to publishing the young writers’ work.

The writing is split up into batches, each taking approximately one hour, and you are welcome to do as many or as few as your schedule allows! You can work in evenings, weekends, early mornings… it’s flexible to suit you, but makes a huge difference.

Want to help us but these aren’t the right fit? We’d still love to hear from you. We can always use help with social media, our website, fundraising, corporate advice and much more.

Please reach out for a chat about how your skills and experience would help us. Thank you!

We are also looking for laptops, iPads and mobile phones, see here, and gifts to show appreciation to our volunteers, see here.