Fancy something with a bit of a kick to it? Do you think you can punch above your weight? Maybe you could train up to become a volunteer personal safety/self defence instructor?

Local charity, The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety, based in Ardrossan’s Barony St John Centre is looking to train up people over a six month period to become volunteer instructors.

The charity provides personal safety, conflict resolution and even practical self defence training to businesses, groups and individuals but particularly vulnerable people and female survivors of violence.

Executive Manager of the charity is Alan Bell, himself a volunteer. He commented: “Since moving from the Scottish Highlands to the Ardrossan seafront, we have seen a rise in the number of people using our services. We are looking for more volunteers to help us to continue to offer this vital resource – everything from volunteers to help clean the Centre and cover the reception desk to people keen to become self defence instructors. We will provide the training if you provide the commitment.”

According to the latest Hate Crime in Scotland report, the most commonly reported hate crimes are racial crimes, sexual orientation aggravated crimes, religiously aggravated crimes and disability aggravated crimes. The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety tackles all of these groups.

The charity holds weekly personal safety workshops for the blind and visually impaired; monthly training sessions for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community; one-to-one sessions for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assaults; and as of the New Year, monthly personal safety sessions for the BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) community.

They also hope to gain funding to allow them to provide personal safety workshops in local schools to help reduce school bullying and hopefully help those feeling suicidal due to bullying and harassment.

Alan added: “We would like our Centre to be open regular hours and additionally, a lot of our workshops are run during weekdays and during school hours so if you are a mother or are unemployed or simply have some spare time on your hands and would like to help, please get in touch. For the self defence instructor roles, the training will take place once per week, probably from 10am-12pm or thereabouts and participants need to be physically fit and have no criminal record so as to pass Disclosure checks. Those wishing to volunteer to man the reception desk and help clean the Centre don’t have to be as physically fit.”

Anyone wishing to know more should contact Alan on 07900950599 or pop into the Centre for more information, the best day being a Thursday as it is open almost all day and into the evening.