Stronger communities, stronger you.

Hello Be the Changers! Thank you so much for engaging with our new platform. We'd love to hear from you how you find it so we can improve our service. We want it to work for you! Follow this link to answer a few short questions about your experience. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season, but if you find this time of year hard, please do reach out to someone. Here are some local resources: Tayside Suicide Prevention The Tayside Suicide Prevention website , which can also be downloaded as an app to your mobile phone, provides: Information about suicide How to help Local, Tayside and national support agency contacts Guidance on creating a safety plan . The Neuk - Adult Mental Health Crisis and Suicide Prevention Centre Telephone: 01738 718070 There is a safe and welcoming environment provided for those who are in crisis. This may be due to situational stress that is affecting mental health and wellbeing e.g. relationship breakdown, bereavement, loss of job or coping with lifestyle changes. If you need a safe space, need to talk, or need someone to listen staff are available to listen and care. Further information can be found on the Neuk website. The Lighthouse (Children and Young People Suicide and Self Harm Crisis Service) Telephone: 0800 121 4820 They offer crisis support to anyone who is at risk with their mental health. This includes whose who are at risk of suicide or self-injury or are in emotional distress or crisis. They offer a safe space to talk and be supported. Staff and volunteers are available to offer a welcoming, non-judgemental approach. Family support is available for any parent/brother or sister/ carer etc. of young people accessing the service. Further information can be found on the The Lighthouse website . Here's to a new year full of community, volunteering and new opportunities! All the best, Emily Skilton, Development officer for Volunteering, Third Sector Interface Perth and Kinross.

What is Micro-Volunteering? Micro-volunteering means undertaking small, quick, low commitment actions that benefit a good cause. It might be a task that one person completes from start to finish, or it might be broken down into small parts, where an individual is just one of many people performing the same task to achieve the end result. These tasks can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 min to an hour! Micro volunteering doesn't necessarily require any ongoing commitment. Sometimes called home or virtual volunteering, if it's online, it can be done from anywhere, at any time! What does micro-volunteering look like? Micro-volunteering can be digital, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be ad-hoc, for the same charity or for a different cause each time. It can be skilled such as reviewing a draft proposal or practical such as transporting donations. The list is endless! Examples include: Copy editing leaflets. Creating useful connections/networking. Set up a social media account. Create media content. Office-based micro-volunteering opportunities including archiving or data input. Share a post on social media to raise awareness or ask for donations. Sign a petition. Join a bag pack or shake a bucket. Donate supplies or collect donations. Fill out a survey. Translate a document. Donate your skills, such as graphic design. Take part in some citizen science. Litter pick. You can find some great micro-volunteering opportunities from national and international organisations such as Age Scotland , Macmillan, SSPCA and the United Nations Volunteer programme . Watch this video by Walking Scotland: https://youtu.be/EuH6tsQi_qQ?si=QyBa05dTCq4c_kWn For Organisations In order to set up and be successful in recruiting volunteers for micro-volunteering opportunities, organisations still need to consider the full volunteer journey. These steps should help you be successful: Plan – what are the tasks, who will manage process. Advertise – Be the Change, social media, noticeboards. Recruit / Manage – be on top of volunteer enquiries, avoid onerous admin. Task – give clear, simple instructions and be available for questions. Feedback – encourage open and regular feedback from the volunteers. Recognition – letter of thanks, references, opportunities to socialise. What are the Benefits of Micro-volunteering? According to Charity Excellence, Micro-volunteering has numerous benefits. · It enables charities to create volunteering opportunities that engage people in your cause, who may otherwise not have the time. · It can get lots done quickly and efficiently, and can save charities time and money. · With jobs and family commitments, lack of time can be a real barrier to volunteering and this is a simple way to encourage more to volunteer. · Micro-volunteering can be used by any charity and it: · Enables you to increase volunteering capacity and access skills and experience that you might otherwise have been unable to. · Allows you to recruit volunteers from anywhere in the country, not just locally. · Can be used to reach groups who may otherwise be excluded, such as older people or the disabled, if housebound. · Often doesn’t require an application process or training. · Can be a good way to bring people initially on board and then grow their engagement and commitment to play a greater role in your work. https://www.charityexcellence.co.uk/what-is-micro-volunteering/ ; accessed 11/12/2025.

"Being a volunteer coordinator is a very rewarding job. I didn’t know such a role existed until I joined OATS volunteering programme." - Eva Kupska, Volunteer Coordinator, OATS. Hi! My name is Eva and I am the Outdoor Access Volunteer Coordinator for the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, also known as OATS. This is the story of how I went from volunteering to finding my dream job as a volunteer coordinator for OATS. I have always enjoyed being outdoors, and there have been times I’ve considered a career that would allow me to spend time in the hills, but other things got in the way. It was a very long and twisty path to get here! When I moved to the UK in 2005, I worked in a horse yard and thought that was going to be my job forever. I loved horses. However, I ended up working in restaurants and coffee shops, moving from place to place. After settling down in Perthshire, I decided to join Outdoor Instructor Trainee programme. Unfortunately, a car accident cancelled my plans. It took 6 months to recover, and I was told that I should refrain from strenuous physical activity and find a sedentary job. That terrified me, and I did the exact opposite; I started exercising and got fit, aiming to walk up the hills again. At the same time, I started studying a Visual Communication Bachelor's Degree. My thoughts were: “Being a graphic designer or illustrator is probably the only sedentary job I could stand”. All my free time was spent outside, on a bike, running, walking, camping … I then got a chance to get Mountain Bike Leader qualifications. Suddenly, I was leading guided rides and again considering a career as an Outdoor Instructor. But after finishing my degree, I got comfortable working at a local coffee roastery. It was an enjoyable job, I was quite good at it, the team was great, so why leave? Some years later, I was out running in the Angus Glens and when descending from one of the hills I came across a group repairing the path. They turned out to be volunteers from Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS). Even though I had previously done some mountain bike trail building, I had never given many thoughts to the mountain footpaths. That day, when I got home, I went straight onto the OATS website and signed up for a volunteering day. They used to run on Sundays and Mondays. I only had free weekends, so I went along on Sundays whenever I could. Shona, the Activity Projects Manager at the time, chatted to me about the way she started her career in environmental sector and thanks to the way the internet works, everything ‘environmental’ was popping out as soon as I was online. Taking up volunteering was hugely beneficial to build up experience and I was helping a good cause at the same time. I found a part-time long distance learning course at SRUC - Wildlife and Conservation Management. It was manageable while having a full-time job. First, I approached it as something I wanted to learn for myself, but soon I felt like there were more meaningful jobs I could do than roasting coffee (Apologies to all coffee addicts!). Suddenly, the OATS volunteering programme changed and it no longer ran on Sundays. I started to take time off work to be able to continue; I realised I would probably have to do a lot of different volunteering activities to gain practical skills and experiences before I could even think of applying for a conservation-type job. This led me to get a job as a postie in rural Perthshire, to have more time for studying and to be closer to the outdoors. Maybe a risky move, but the current work was far too comfortable, and I think I needed a “shock to the system” to really take a career change seriously. Soon after, I found out that Shona was leaving her post. I jumped at the possibility to fill in the position, but the job role that came up required much more experience than I had. I applied anyway but, understandably, was not successful. A few months later, OATS got in touch to say the Volunteer Coordinator position had opened up. Again, I wasn’t successful the first time around, but then a phone call came to say the role was mine if I was still interested! Career change is not an easy process but if there is something you are passionate about, it is worth it. Being a volunteer coordinator is a very rewarding job. I didn’t know such a role existed until I joined OATS volunteering programme. The combination of organizing volunteering days, being outdoors with like-minded people, conservation work and promoting responsible outdoor access is the perfect fit for me!