Our Programme Areas
Health and Wellbeing
We work in partnership with the Scottish Government to deliver the Refreshed Strategy for Volunteering in NHSScotland. We support the Strategy by encouraging Health Board's to think about planning volunteering in order to maximise the benefits volunteers bring to improving the health and wellbeing of Scotland's NHS patients and users. Health Boards in Scotland are now thinking more about how they involve volunteers in service delivery ensuring they provide a positive and well managed experience for each of their volunteers.
Environment - Natural Built and Historic
Our activity focuses on the development of strategic partnerships to increase knowledge and understanding of the current volunteering landscape in the environmental sector including, natural, built and historic. Our approach concentrates on the most appropriate interventions where volunteering development can be enhanced and issues addressed. We support environmental volunteering organizations by providing learning opportunities in effective volunteer's management.
Sports, Arts and Culture
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games provide unique and exciting opportunities to capture the imagination of the people of Scotland. Both Games offer significant opportunities to learn, develop and recognise the contribution volunteers make and the legacy this will create. We are the lead organization in delivering People Making Waves,
www.peoplemakingwaves.org.uk, a project which aims to connect the people of Scotland with the Games and the Olympic Movement.
Connecting With Communities
We work in partnership with national and local organisation to ensure that volunteers across Scotland can access positive volunteering experiences and the impact of volunteering is fully understood and recognised by Scottish Government and local Community Planning Partnerships through initatives such as
Time Banking and our links with local
volunteering agencies.
Education and Learning
Volunteer development takes many shapes and forms, both across formal and informal educational settings such as schools, colleges and universities as well as the community learning and development sector. Here we focus on the development and delivery of our learning and practice products and services for volunteer managers and coordinators. Our aim is to enhance the experiences of volunteers across Scotland. We also explore ways in which volunteering offers people in Scotland an opportunity to learn.
Employability
Volunteering can provide a route for individuals to develop skills, confidence and networks that increase their employability. Between April 2009 and November 2010 we delivered the
Volunteering Options Project signposting over 3000 individuals on Jobseekers Allowance for over 6 months to volunteering. The
VSkills project was developed in partnership with Scottish Government, Adam Smith College and Motherwell College to create a route for unemployed volunteers to record what they have learned through volunteering to achieve an Employability Award accredited by SQA. We continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus as plans for the Single Work Programme are developed.
