SERVICE DETAILS
The ethos of volunteering is deeply ingrained in our organisation. Venture Scotland was created by a group of volunteers returning from Raleigh International in the 1980s. Our volunteer community are involved in almost everything we do at Venture Scotland and is made up of like-minded and diverse people from our local communities who come together to help young people achieve their goals.
We welcome volunteer applications from all over our local communities as we believe a rich and diverse volunteer community is vital to the delivery of our programmes.
What Is Involved?
There are many ways to get involved depending on the amount of time you have, what skills you have and what you are interested in. While the majority of our volunteers want to get involved in our outdoor activities, there are lots of different ways you can help our young people and many of our volunteers carry out multiple roles.
As part of our safeguarding policy, all volunteers require to be PVG checked through Disclosure Scotland.
Ways To Get Involved:
Programme Volunteers
Do you want to work with our amazing young people? Are you keen to get outdoors for a load of fun activities? Then being a Programme Volunteer might be the position for you!
From indoor climbing to five-day bothy trips and everything in between, there’s something for everyone.
You’ll be getting out and about to support our staff and young people on various activity days and bothy trips, getting your feet wet and empowering young people to change their lives!
Bothy Maintenance Volunteers
We have a team of volunteers to maintain and improve our beautiful bothy in Glen Etive. Our volunteers, normally during weekend trips, paint, build, carry and dig to keep the bothy in tip-top condition for groups of young people to visit – no prior DIY skills required, just plenty of enthusiasm!
Building Trade Volunteers
We are always looking for qualified tradesmen to help us maintain our offices, our equipment and our bothies. If you are a joiner, builder, electrician, plumber or decorator and have some spare time, please get in touch.
Fundraising Volunteers
Funding our work is a constant challenge and we couldn’t do it without our fundraising volunteers. If you’d like to set yourself a personal challenge to help raising vital funds for us, please get in touch. More info here JustGiving.
Admin Volunteers
Are days out on the rainy hills not your cup of tea? Admin Volunteers are a huge part of helping us to keep Venture Scotland operating. Everything from collating evaluation data, carrying out research projects to photocopying and shredding. Get in touch if you’re looking for an indoorsy role.
What Do I Get Out Of It?
Being a Venture Scotland volunteer is immensely rewarding. Aside from the opportunity to experience some amazing places in Scotland and take part in super fun activities, you will be contributing to improving the lives of some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people. We also try to give back as much as possible to our volunteers – the following is free for our volunteers:
- Annual Volunteer Development Weekend
- In-house volunteer training opportunities (safeguarding, mental health first aid, etc.)
- Opportunities for funded personal training/qualifications (ML, RCI, D1, etc.)
How Do I Sign Up?
The first thing to do is to email your interest to volunteer@venturescotland.org.uk
From there, you’ll be contacted by our Volunteer Coordinator, who will arrange a meeting for us to get to know each other better. If you and VS are suited to each other, we’ll get you started in one of our training programmes.
Each step of joining us as a volunteer is an assessment of how YOU fit with us and how WE fit with you – our young people are always our priority and so we take a lot of time and care in making sure our volunteers are the right people for the role.
If you don’t make it the first time then please don’t be dismayed – we like to give feedback wherever we can and you can always try again. Our Volunteer Coordinator replies to all applications – whether they are successful or not.
We also require all volunteers to go through a disclosure check and to become members of the PVG scheme. A self-disclosure form will be provided at an early stage of the application process. We look forward to hearing from you!
