AFTER a 20-year break, Bob-a-Job week is back – only this time it is all about volunteering.

The first Scout Community Week will be held in May next year, with youngsters throughout the UK helping out in their local areas.

The week is replacing Scout Job Week, affectionately known as Bob-a-Job week, which saw scouts carry out jobs such as gardening and car cleaning in return for a small payment. It was abandoned in 1992.

Bear Grylls, originally from Dorset and now UK Chief Scout, said: “Volunteering is at the very heart of scouting.

“All scouts promise to help other people and there is no better way of showing this than getting involved in your community.

“I hope that as many scout groups as possible will get inspired in this celebration of their own community next May.

“My own scouting visits around the UK always remind me that if you want something done then ask a busy person. This country is full of many people who give of their spare time to make a difference and I am proud to be amongst their numbers.

“Together we can influence positive change.”

He added: “Volunteering and the community will always be at the heart of scouting, and next May we promise to do our best.”

A new survey by consultants PACEC conducted to mark the launch of Scout Community Week, which will run between May 14-20 next year, reveals that more than a third (36 per cent) of former youth scout members volunteer for two hours a week, compared to 26 per cent of the general population.

And two in five voluntary groups, 40 per cent, said they would not have been able to get the same amount of work done without the help of scouts.

Ragen Bartaby, district scout commissioner for Poole, said: “The young people promise to help the community as part of their scouting.

“This week is really about showing that scouting is alive and it will be good for us to get out into the community.

“Scouting is a little bit of a secret, we tend to hide away in our halls so it will be really good to get out and show people what we are all about.”

He said the Bob-a-Job week would see scouts knocking on people’s doors looking to sweep driveways or clear gardens.

Now the new revamped Scout Job Week will see teams of scouts dedicating their week to working on a project in the community.

Ragen said anyone wishing to nominate or suggest a project for the scouts of Poole to work on next May can visit poole-scouts.org