Charities & Volunteering Update

Tis the season of giving, and often people take the winter months as a chance to try out some volunteering.

However, volunteering should be seen as far more than simply the giving of a gift such as your time to a worthy cause. In return for your dedication and commitment, many volunteering placements will return excellent support, training, recognition, appreciation and experiences which money simply can’t buy!

Here at Stirling we have an exciting 2015 ahead, and there’s no better time to think about volunteering than the present!

• V-Team – After successful visits to Start-Up Stirling’s Food Bank, Camphill Blair Drummond’s workshops and the Leprosy Mission Scotland’s media focus group V-Team will kick start the Spring semester with another series of trips. If you want to get involved with volunteering but don’t know where to begin this is the best place to start! 

www.stirlingstudentsunion.com/vteam/

• Charitable Societies – It has never been easier to start up a charitable society, to represent a cause or charity you want to support here on campus. It is exactly the same process for any other club or society and in Spring we have a series of workshops to help get new ideas off the ground. Save the Children, MacMillan Cancer Support and Mount Kilimanjaro First Aid Programme are all keen to hear from students like you who would like to start a society on their behalf.

• Saltire Awards - Had a committee position or volunteered this semester? You could be entitled to a nationally recognised certificate to record your contribution for your commitments. Awards are given for 50, 100, 200 or 500 hours. Simply log your hours with the Saltire Awards website (www.saltireawards.org.uk) and e-mail alban.dickson@stir.ac.uk for more information and how to get started!

• Case Study – The Mount Kilimanjaro First Aid Programme is an excellent opportunity to engage in volunteering which makes a huge difference for the communities it works with, and gives you amazing experiences in return. Students involved at another University have used their experiences to deliver findings to 30,000 experts and key researchers. For more information contact Tina on christina@kilimanjarofirstaidcommunityprogram.com

Remember to look out for our next Students’ Union volunteer fayre next semester, our next Sports Union volunteering bulletin and that you can always arrange an appointment with Alban Dickson (alban.dickson@stir.ac.uk) to discuss ways of developing your own volunteering.