A couple of weeks ago you may have read about our Office Manager Pat’s experiences of volunteering with Contact the Elderly. Continuing this series of Meet the Team at Volunteer Dundee, Wendy Taylor, Team Leader Volunteering now tells us about her journey and how she sees that volunteering changes lives.

I started my journey with Volunteer Dundee then known as Volunteer Centre Dundee back in 2004 as their Information and Communications Worker and currently I am the team leader for volunteering. I oversee Volunteer Dundee’s core activities around volunteering. This includes our information service for advertising volunteering opportunities, Saltire Awards for recognising young volunteers, volunteer manager’s forum and volunteer management best practice. For this blog I am focusing on our information and advice service on volunteering.

We do a lot of promotional activities to inspire people into volunteering and hold 2 awards events to recognise volunteers across the city– Volunteer Awards and Youth Volunteering Awards. Currently we advertise over 350 volunteering opportunities and there is everything from administration, conservation, befriending, care support work, children’s clubs and youth work and of course the more recognised retail volunteering in charity shops. There is something for everyone and we can help people to find their perfect match.

We want to ensure that anyone enquiring about volunteering will find something that fits their skills and motivations so that they will get the best from their volunteering experience. We know that volunteering is great for lots of reasons and our annual volunteer’s survey* backs this up with 87% of the volunteers saying it increased their personal development and 56% saw an increase in their health & wellbeing. It’s also great for the communities that they volunteer in and without volunteers so many services and activities just wouldn’t happen.

Working at Volunteer Dundee is a privilege for me as I see on a daily basis the difference that volunteering makes and it’s great when you hear how volunteering has helped people by improving their health, into employment or helped them to achieve things they didn’t think they could do anymore. This is always shown at our annual awards ceremonies where we see these examples of individuals making such an impact to others lives as well as their own – I usually need the tissues to hand. Nominations are open for our annual Volunteer Awards in June so if you know an individual, team or volunteer manager who deserves to be recognised then please nominate them here.

So on a final note if you have not ever thought about volunteering and don’t know what you could do then why not find out more by getting in touch with us on 01382 305705, or checking out what is available on our website here or complete the register your interest form and we can send you more information.

Wendy Taylor, Team Leader Volunteering, Volunteer Dundee.

*73 Volunteers from 19 organisations