Borders Community Action celebration of volunteering in Borders during National Volunteer Week

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

The Volunteers’ Week campaign started in 1984 making this the 40th year across the UK but only the second for Borders Community Action since its launch in April 2023.

BCA’s CEO, Juliana Amaral, announced their National Volunteers Week programme: ‘ we know the value of volunteers to communities and organisations across the Scottish Borders. We work throughout the year to recruit, develop and support volunteers and volunteering organisations. This year we have launched our first-ever ‘Community Volunteer Champions’ Awards for communities across the Borders. and will be running training focused on topics relating to volunteering that our members have told us are important to them. BCA’s own team will also be undertaking our own volunteering activities during volunteering week. We are very excited about National Volunteering Week.’

Borders Community Action will also be running online training sessions during Volunteer Week on key topics such as Volunteer Management, Trustee Skills and Duties, Risk Management and Charity Governance. Further details are available on the BCA website (borderstsi.org.uk).

Susan Walker from Tweed Togs adds: ‘Volunteers are at the heart of our organisation. We couldn’t operate without the huge contributions and efforts of our volunteer team and Volunteering Week is a chance to celebrate the work of our team and hopefully attract others into volunteering in their community. A few hours a week can make a significant impact and a chance to forge new friendships, too.’

Juliana Amaral concludes by saying: ‘we know that volunteering is hugely beneficial to communities and organisations and it also has fantastic well-being and health benefits. It brings people together, gets us out and about and talking to new people. Isolation is a major concern in the Scottish Borders and volunteering can really help counter that issue. We are also keen to raise the profile of corporate volunteering where organisations can support local community groups and charities as teams or individuals. We see more and more employers providing volunteering days to their people and we are working with a number of organisations to ensure that these days are used to deliver local benefit’.