Volunteers' Week 2022

May 30th 2022

We are delighted to celebrate this year's Volunteers' Week which is a UK wide campaign that takes place from 1-7 June every year.

It’s a time when volunteering involving organisations are encouraged to thank and celebrate their volunteers, past and present.

The Volunteers’ Week campaign started in 1984, which means this year marks the 38th year of formally saying ‘thank you’ to volunteers. The week also raises awareness about the benefits becoming a volunteer and the diverse volunteering roles that are available.

As well as helping others, Volunteering has been shown to have a positive impact on the lives of those who volunteer, assisting volunteers in gaining new skills and boosting self-esteem.

This year Volunteer’s Week coincides with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations (which includes The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) - a tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022), and also the Month of Community.

At VAS we are proud of Shetland's volunteers

Statistics show that Shetland is consistently in the top 3 for volunteering participation rates. The Scottish Household Survey shows formal adult volunteering rates at 26% with Shetland double that at 58% and much higher when taking in informal numbers.

This year we are celebrating Volunteers' Week by going out into the community. We are visiting volunteer involving organisations (one for each day of the week) and are bringing along a tree for their volunteers to plant with a plaque to say the tree has been planted during Volunteer’s Week in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year and thanking all their volunteers from Voluntary Action Shetland.

Kathleen Williamson, Volunteer Support Worker at VAS said ‘we are really looking forward to getting out and about and meeting volunteers and the organisations that support them during Volunteer’s Week and saying thank you for all the amazing volunteering taking place throughout the Islands.’

We are really looking forward to getting out and about and meeting volunteers and the organisations that support them during Volunteer’s Week [...]
Kathleen Williamson, Volunteer Support Worker at Voluntary Action Shetland

We will be visiting:

Nort Trow Gardin in North Roe
Michaelswood in Aith
Transition Turriefield in Sandness
Bressay Development Ltd - Bressay Community Woodland at the Brough Loch
The Community Development Company of Nesting (CDCN) – Nesting Scrapstore
Food For The Way Garden – Lerwick
RSPB Scotland (Shetland) – Spiggie

The organisations taking part in this year's celebrations appreciate the week to say thank you to their volunteers. Beth Aucott, the Shetland RSPB Warden said:

‘Volunteers are a huge part of the RSPB, with more than 12,000 volunteers contributing nearly a million hours of their time every year. Their efforts are invaluable and help us to make a bigger, better impact for nature and the environment. Here in Shetland, our RSPB volunteers talk to visitors to ensure they are having the best visit possible to our reserves, they monitor sites, organise pin badges and lend a hand in the office. Each volunteer brings their own skills and knowledge to a role, which makes a stronger team of staff and volunteers to work together to save nature. It’s a real joy to work with those who are contributing their time, and everyone benefits from volunteers’ involvement. They are a real asset to the team and should be proud of the work they do.’

[...] It’s a real joy to work with those who are contributing their time, and everyone benefits from volunteers’ involvement. They are a real asset to the team and should be proud of the work they do.
Beth Aucott, RSPB (Shetland Warden)

If you would like to get involved in volunteering head to our Volunteering sub-section or get in touch with one of our volunteer support workers here.