A blog post by Fleur Dijkman, our Volunteers and Youth Programmes Manager.

This week is Volunteer Week. It’s our chance to shout “THANK YOU” through the wide-open 19th century windows of our Edinburgh Office, to show our appreciation for our amazing team of 400 volunteers. Here are just some of the ways our volunteers have been involved over the last year: 

2021-2022 saw a variety of projects including Sustaining Choices, which supported communities across Scotland to develop active travel and sustainable transport action plans; Live Life Morvern, which worked with the community of Morvern on the West Coast of Scotland to develop a Community Vision and Action Plan; and Scottish Borders Council workshops, which promoted a new approach to placemaking.  Our volunteers facilitated and scribed these community-led events up and down the country. We’re grateful for our volunteers’ knowledge, and so are the people we work with. One of our clients said: ‘Massive thanks to the PAS volunteers. They brought it all to life and it wouldn’t have been as rich an experience without them.’ 

Our volunteers delivered multiple events to people at Community Councils and Elected Members across Scotland. Attendees have described our volunteers’ efforts as ‘very informative, clear and detailed … has significantly raised my knowledge and understanding of the planning process’. We asked our Training Volunteers how they’d describe their experience, and here is what they told us:

Since January, our team of 40 dedicated Advice Service Volunteers took a whopping 438 cases, ranging from household permitted development to use classes. Clients are incredibly grateful for our volunteers’ efforts. One happy client told us: 

“I write to thank your organisation for providing independent support in planning matters to voluntary organisations such as my own. Our recent (but possibly on-going) planning representation was greatly assisted by the professional knowledge of your volunteer, he took up our request and focused diligently on it. He responded several times to subsequent questions, even getting in touch late evening. I extend sincere thanks and appreciation [to your volunteer] for sharing his professional knowledge, skills and experience with us. As the CC member with the Planning remit, I have learned from this. I would not hesitate to recommend PAS to others in our situation.”

Upskilling our volunteers via events is just one of the ways we thank our volunteers. From soft skills such as Facilitation Station to planning-related topics such as 20-Minute Neighbourhoods, 217 volunteers attended our 28 events last year. 

We also run the occasional social event, so our volunteers can meet others in the field. Most recent was our Quiz, to celebrate Volunteer Week. The quiz was won by the brilliant Diane Cassidy. Congratulations! 

Over the last year, our volunteers have devoted their time, skills and energy to many projects and events. A while ago one volunteers said: “Keep up the good work!”. We’d like to reflect the sentiment back to our volunteers: Thanks so much for all you do and keep up the good efforts. 

To find out more about volunteering click here, or get in touch with Fleur at fleur@pas.org.uk.