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Inspiring Volunteers

This National Volunteers Week, Inspiring Scotland CEO Celia Tennant shines a light on and thanks our volunteers, in their many and varied roles.

When the pandemic struck, the reaction from people across the country to support others through volunteering was humbling. So many people felt compelled to use their time and skills to help individuals, communities and organisations – either getting involved in community resilience projects, volunteering with charities across Scotland or through organisations like the Scottish Tech Army. This significant level of support, although often not visible, will continue to be needed as we collectively work together to recover from the pandemic.

This National Volunteers Week, on behalf of Inspiring Scotland and all the organisations we work alongside, I’d like to thank all of the volunteers, in their many and varied roles. From serving as trustees helping to guide organisations and drive impact, to mentoring and direct support for families and young people – the support you provide is truly inspirational.

Our Specialist Volunteer Network (SVN) focuses on highly-skilled volunteering, bringing professional volunteers and charities together to work on specific challenges or opportunities. This approach can help to strengthen organisations, enhance their delivery and make greater change happen.

The commitment to provide support from Scotland’s business community is staggering. Last year alone our network of over 500 volunteers provided more than 2,000 hours of free support to charities right across Scotland. SVN can help with a range of areas – from legal support, such as helping with contracts, to marketing support helping charities connect better digitally. Our Specialist Volunteer Team is on hand to further discuss any issues, with our very own Elaine delivering bespoke training for 50 organisations.

At Inspiring Scotland, we pride ourselves on being connectors and facilitating collaboration. By bringing the right people around the table, we’re able to nurture great ideas and innovations. Recently our SVN team brought together over 20 volunteers from Wood MacKenzie to support 6 charities. A prolonged engagement like this allows our Specialist Volunteers to get involved while the charities benefit from consistency and team collaboration to overcome an ambitious challenge – bringing benefits to both charity staff and volunteers alike.

Volunteering is an essential glue, bringing together people from different sectors to work together to make positive social change. Last year we supported over 400 requests for support, matching an average of 33 Specialist Volunteers to charities each month. Any charity in Scotland is eligible to receive support from our SVN Network, and interested charities should get in touch.