Last week marked National Volunteers’ Week 2025, an opportunity to celebrate the incredible work of volunteers across the whole of Scotland including the fantastic community events and operations that take place in Inverclyde.
The CVS Inverclyde team look forward every year to helping promote this event and also to taking part in activities. However, the stars of our show are the volunteers that help us at CVS with exciting volunteer projects. CVSI Volunteers are a fantastic resource that offers our organisation skills and ideas as well as different viewpoints and life experiences to some exciting projects and events taking place within Inverclyde.
Volunteers at CVSI gain the opportunity to build their work-related skills, network with organisations and other volunteers as well as helping to improve their communication skills, develop new skills and also help with their overall wellbeing.
On Wednesday we welcomed CVS volunteers to our office in Greenock for a celebration of their work with us over the last year. Thank you to our other special guests for attending this event including Pauline Hare from West College Scotland and Bev Thow from Moving On Inverclyde. Bev is a board member at CVS Inverclyde, which is also a voluntary position.
One of our CVSI volunteers, Kara Brain, went to the Scottish Parliament to take part in a Cross-Party Group on volunteering led by Volunteer Scotland.
She learnt that new research shows 18% of adults in 2024 do some form of volunteering and this accounts for approximately £530m in social value across Scotland.
Dressed in her pink CVSI hoodie, Kara met volunteers from a range of organisations and learned more about the impact volunteering has on the economy in Scotland.
Tony Lockey, Programme Lead at CVS Inverclyde said: ”It was brilliant to attend the Cross-Party Group on volunteering with Kara and her parents.
“It is important that more young people get the opportunity to volunteer as it offers so many benefits.”
This was the first time Kara had got to visit the Scottish Parliament. Kara’s proud parents both attended with us and her mother shared the following about Kara’s time as a volunteer at CVS Inverclyde: “By volunteering Kara comes home afterwards feeling valued and part of something positive.
“It is lovely to see her smiling as CVSI have made her feel part of a team, her confidence has grown so much.”
The Scottish Parliament Volunteering event introduced Alan Stevenson from Volunteer Scotland as a keynote speaker and he said, “There is something powerful about giving back.
“In a world where individuality seems to be on the rise causing greater loneliness and exclusion, volunteering allows you to be involved and part of a team.”
Over the week CVS staff took part in volunteering opportunities at Parklea Branching Out and with Inverclyde Foodbank. Both these organisations welcomed us to help during the week, and we enjoyed volunteering alongside them. A big thank you from CVS Inverclyde to all volunteers in Inverclyde and for celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2025 with us.
Read more volunteering stories here: https://www.cvsinverclyde.org.uk/news/all-news/
Find local volunteer opportunities on https://volunteerinverclyde.com/volunteers/search.htm
There’s something for everyone!