Below are some of the questions we've been asked about volunteering for a PHAB Camp. The answers will give you a flavour of life on a Camp and the commitment expected from a volunteer. This list is not exhaustive by any means. If you have any further questions, please contact us.

• What is needed from me?
  
• How will I cope with the disabilities?
  
• Is any training given?
  
• How are we organised?
  
• What about the non-disabled children?
  
• What sort of activities go on?
  
• What do I get from it all?
  
• Do I have to pay any money?
  
• Does a Camp count towards the Duke of Edinburgh Award?
  
• What's the food like?
  
• I need a special diet, will I starve?
  
• Do you have any more information?
• Will I have to sleep in the same room as the children?
  
• Will I have to wake up in the night?
  
• Will I have time to pop to the pub?
  
• Am I insured?
  

You need energy, ideas, imagination, the ability to get on with the children as well as the other volunteers.

You will be expected to carry responsibility and, whilst there is a Camp leader who plans the overall pattern of the day, there is plenty of room for flexibility and all the volunteers have a big say in what eventually takes place during the week.

It is up to each volunteer to cope with any unexpected situations that may arise e.g.. the girl who has lost her purse or the boy who wants to go swimming but has no trunks etc.

The volunteers work very hard, but we also have a good social life. You must be able to impose the self-discipline to ensure you do not run out of steam before the end of the Camp.

Each volunteer who applies for a Camp must attend the volunteer training day, which is held on a Sunday at the end of June. You will be taught some of the basic skills needed to successfully and safely look after the children. You will also have the opportunity to meet the other members of your Camp as well as discuss the plan for the week with the Camp leader.

The Junior, Senior, Venture and 18+ Camps have a broad mix of abilities, some participants will be wheelchair users. The Breadfree and Freedom Camps deal specifically with severely disabled people who have both a physical disability and learning difficulties.

There is a qualified nurse on each holiday who takes full responsibility for all medical matters - but lifting, toileting, feeding and changing, where needed, are all dealt with by the volunteer helpers. Several volunteers will have been on previous Camps and so are able to offer their advice and experience. However, the vast majority of new volunteers surprise themselves by how quickly they acquire new skills.

All volunteers have to attend a training day before the Camps, which is held at the end of June in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

During the day the volunteers are given basic training in looking after others. This includes hygiene, use of wheelchairs, use of minibuses, child protection issues and safety. There are also question and answer sessions as well as group discussions with the Camp leaders and experienced volunteers. Any queries you have can be raised at these or at any other time during the day.

On the Camp itself there is a mixture of experienced and new volunteers to ensure there are always enough people around who can answer questions.

Please never be afraid to ask a question or point out a potential problem. Everyone is there to help each other get the best out of the Camp.

Each volunteer is usually allocated a child with disibilities to look after and act as a first point of contact for any problems. This means that you can get to know each other well during the Camp. This arrangement doesn't mean that you won't get to know the other children on the Camp, the amount of care your child needs will depend on their disabilities.

They are equally as important as the disabled children because we are aiming to integrate disabled children into the society that their able-bodied peers take for granted. We need a balanced mixture of children from different backgrounds.

Some of the children are referred to us by social workers or schools as being in need of a holiday, others come for a change from family holidays. Some of the children come from inner city areas, others from more affluent backgrounds.

The Breakfree and Freedom holidays are different in that all the children on the holiday have multiple disabilities but our aims and objectives for them are the same.

The important thing is that all the children, disabled or able-bodied, are treated the same and this means having a programme of activities that they all want to take part in.

Activities are many and varied and are appropriate to the age range and ability of the children on each specific Camp. We try to emphasise the activities which disabled children often do not have the chance to participate in but which given a little thought, inventiveness, and some modification, they can take part in on equal terms with their able-bodied contemporaries.

Activities may include horse riding, canoeing, swimming, barbecues and sports as well as trips to the cinema, seaside and theme parks. The programme depends very much on the skills of the individual volunteers and their ideas and plans.

You will have the chance to make new friends and make a difference to the children's lives. Many of them look forward to the Camp all year and, at the end of the week, invariably ask whether they can go on next year's Camp.

Its hard work but very rewarding. You won't get any financial reward and you will be exhausted by the end. If you do not consider the Camp to be one of the richest weeks in your life, as well as one of the happiest you have spent, then the writer, for one, will be both surprised and disappointed.

We do not charge a fixed fee for volunteers to come on a Camp. All the activities, accommodation and transport to and from a central point in Birmingham are provided. Pocket money for ice cream, drinks etc. is not included. Once your place is confirmed on the Camp, you will be asked to pay a £10 booking deposit which will be returned to you on the first day of the Camp.

You can help out on street collections, come on the sponsored walk in March or be sponsored by family and friends to come on the Camp. Any help you can give through fund raising or personal donations is greatly appreciated.

Going on a PHAB Camp will qualify for the residential part of the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold award scheme. Please bring your qualification book with you on the Camp and give it to the leader at the end of the week.

Great!

No, you won't starve on the Camp. The cooks at all the centres we use are happy to provide special diets. Tell your Camp leader before the holiday and he or she will make sure the cooks know.

There are more details about the Camps in the volunteer booklet. It contains much of the information in this website as well as plenty more details about the types of disabilities, using wheelchairs and transport.

The booklet is in .pdf format. To read it you need the Acrobat reader which is installed in many computers. If you haven't got a copy on your computer you can download it from www.adobe.com.

We suggest that you right click on the link below and select 'Save target as' to save the file to disk first. Then open it once you have finished downloading.

Download volunteer booklet (850K, approx 2 minutes if you are using a phone line)

Sleeping arrangements will vary depending on the Camp. In general you will not share the same bedrooms as the children, if you do it will always be with another volunteer.

Some Camps take a tent for the children to take it in turns to sleep in. They are usually accompanied by two volunteers.

It depends on the children. Most will sleep through the night but some may wake and call out for help. We have baby monitors so they can be heard.

Er, no, if you leave the Camp then someone else has to work harder to cover for you. We don't take enough volunteers to give people time off. We have a strict alcohol policy limiting consumption to 2 units per day. Some of the Camps forbid alcohol.

We have liability insurance that covers all the Camp participants for damage caused to or by them whilst on the Camps. This does not cover personal possesions which should be insured under your household policy. The drivers are also comprehensively insured to drive the minibuses.