Walk Leaders

We are lucky to have our own accredited walk leader trainer here in the Forest of Dean, so we can run courses whenever we have enough volunteers wanting to be trained. Some people ask why we need to train people how to lead walks so here's an outline of how and why.

We believe that it is important that walkers feel safe and motivated when they come on our walks.The local Walk 4 Health scheme is part of a national organisation Walking for Health . There are some 600 local schemes in England, running 3,400 weekly walks, with 70,000 regular walkers and 10,000 active volunteers – 90% of them walk leaders.

Walking for Health write the training materials and 'train the trainers' to deliver it. The training covers a variety of topics, including the health benefits of walking, how to help people achieve their goals, how to mange a group with different abilities, how to risk assess a walk, what to do if there is an accident, and much more.  Once walk leaders have been trained they are covered by the personal liability insurance provided by Walking for Health.

Walk leaders Richard and Barbara preparing for our Lydney walk

Locally we ask all our volunteer walk leaders to participate in a walk before coming to the training and then to lead at least one walk after their training before we give them their certificate. Some leaders will want to set up their own, new walks in which case we offer help and support to do this. Other trainees volunteer in order to help on existing walks and to provide cover for when Walk Leaders are on holiday. We offer basic first aid training to all our leaders, though it is not a requirement of the job.

Our next training course is in Coleford on Monday, 4th February. We are keen to recruit walk leaders to set up new walks in the following areas : Sedbury/Tutshill, St Briavels, Lydbrook, Longhope, Huntley, Newent, Minsterworth, Westbury and Newnham. Please get in touch if you are interested. Details in our leaflets on the website Walk 4 Health details