Volunteer Champions is a youth volunteering project developed by Volunteer Centre East Dunbartonshire (VCED), in partnership with Turnbull High School. The Volunteer Champions receive training from VCED so that they can promote a volunteering culture within their school and local community.
In Phase 1, we recruited 16 Volunteer Champions who successfully completed their training within Turnbull High School and went on to promote volunteering and volunteering awards within the school environment. Currently, 8 of these 16 have been trained in facilitation and are now leading sessions within the new Volunteer Champions training programme. These Volunteer Champions were fully involved in the project development phase of this project i.e. developing training, P.R materials, volunteer audits and project plans. They have also been encouraged to take ownership of their Volunteer Champion programme.
In Phase 2, we currently have 20 new Volunteer Champions who are progressing through the training programme. We have developed an interview/selection process as a result of the level of interest in becoming a Volunteer Champion.
During this phase we took a strategic decision to place the VCED Schools Projects Leader within Turnbull High School for 2 days a week. This is during break and lunch times, in order to promote Volunteer Champions, volunteering and recognition/awards within the learning environment. A volunteering hub is now being established within the school to assist with P. R., the promotion of volunteering, recognition/awards for volunteering and the aims of Volunteer Champions. This hub is facilitated in conjunction with the Volunteer Champions. As with Phase One the Volunteer Champions are fully involved in the project development and are encouraged to take ownership of their Volunteer Champions programme.
Volunteer Comment
“Over the past 6 weeks, a group of sixteen 5th and 6th year pupils have received training from the 
Volunteer Centre East Dunbartonshire. Two members of staff at the Volunteer Centre, Adrian Murtagh and Luisa Palmegiani, dedicated themselves for a year to the pupils of Turnbull High School in order to kick start a new project called “Volunteer Champions”. Mr McLachlan has also been there every week to give an input on behalf of the staff. The Champions have learnt many new skills and made new friends.
The key objectives of the volunteer training were to:
- receive training from the Volunteer Centre
- recognise volunteering within the school
- promote a volunteering culture within the school
- assist and organise events within the school regarding volunteering
- engage in marketing of Volunteer Champions
- record new skills in order to receive awards and recognition.
So far, the Volunteer Champions have learned many new skills. They have learned to produce confident and motivating presentations, set up a volunteer stand at public events, work better in a team, how to overcome nerves and much more! They have made a presentation on Volunteer Champions to the staff of Turnbull, the Parent Council, and to the leader of East Dunbartonshire Council on the evening when they were presented with their VC certificates. The group of volunteers also created a great UCAS form because of the experiences they have had so far and will have in the future. They have also made great strides towards gaining their MV awards and Silver Youth Achievement Awards, which will extend their volunteer work even more. They have all had a great experience so far and are looking forward to extending their knowledge in volunteering and promoting it within the school.”
Aileen Goldie S5
on behalf of the Volunteer Champions (2009)
Community Learning and Development have recently awarded the centre further funding so that we can expand this project to work with other secondary schools.
The volunteer centre’s vision is that Volunteer Champions will one day be a part of all high schools across East Dunbartonshire.
If you are interested in this fantastic project and are not within Turnbull High School, please email Luisa to register you’re interest!
Alternatively if you are a pupil at Turnbull High School please speak to one of your Volunteer Champions to get involved.