Inspiration

Interview with Mark Allen - Volunteer Board Member

When onshore for three weeks at a time Mark found he had a lot of spare time on his hands. As Offshore Operations Team Leader for Talisman Energy he also had a lot of extremely useful skills, the value of which to the voluntary sector, he wasn’t fully aware until he started volunteering. In his role as Board member for Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) Aberdeenshire Central and South he has changed in 6 months from someone who felt guilty being at home doing nothing to someone who now feels a sense of self worth that he is able to put something back into the community and offer the voluntary sector the benefit of his business experience. “The novelty of having huge amounts of free time wore off and I felt the desire to do something constructive and different.” Mark has had a lot of encouragement and has felt much appreciated by CVS Aberdeenshire Central and South, so much so that apart from continuing in his current role he is now looking for more volunteering opportunities.

Volunteer Q&A with Catriona Latham

Q) Tell us where you volunteered:

A) At AB (Alford’s Best) Club for about 3-4 years, once a fortnight and Alford Youth Forum – for about 2 years

Q) What did you do as a volunteer?

A) I helped with the youth club as a youth worker, doing activities and games with the youngsters. In the youth forum we raised money, held meetings and did a lot of presentations looking for support from the community.

Q) Why did you start volunteering?

A) AB club - I was always interested in youth work and working with people with disabilities and when the opportunity came up I took it.
Youth forum- I felt that the young people of Alford needed a voice and we wanted the young people to have somewhere to go at night so our main aim was a youth café.

Q) How did you find out about the opportunities?

A) I heard about the youth forum through the school and one of the youth workers and became involved from then.

Q) What did you hope to give and or gain from volunteering?

A) I hoped to build up more experience and I hoped to enjoy my time and give something back to the community.

Q) Tell us what you actually gained from volunteering?

A) I enjoyed both voluntary experiences. I enjoyed it when people of the community listened to us in the youth forum and respected us as they often portrayed young people as thugs etc. I also gained a lot of confidence and experience with presentations and speaking in front of people.

Q) Tell us about any other benefits volunteering has had for you at a personal level?

A) It helped my CV and personal statement for university. It also helped me gain entry to my course as they could see that I had given quite a lot to the community and was quite an outgoing person.

Q) Did you feel your contribution as a volunteer was recognised?

A) I feel it was recognised as I got the contribution to the community award twice through the school and got a number of certificates of recognition. The MV award also made it all worth it.