SITE
.png)
Volunteering
Volunteering can be a brilliant pathway into employment or even just a great way of spending your time productively.
Volunteering can bring with it a wide range of benefits including:
- Making a positive difference to someone else’s life
- Improved confidence and self-esteem
- A sense of purpose
- Feeling like part of the community
- Developing new skills
- Adding something new to your CV
- Giving you a new reference
- Making new friends and connections
- An opportunity to take part in training
- Reducing loneliness
Having a criminal record should not prevent you from volunteering your time but it’s important that you find an appropriate role.
Many charities who use volunteers work with children and/or vulnerable adults and therefore some of the roles will be subject to specific rules around disclosure of criminal records. See our page on the Disclosure service and the PVG scheme.
Examples of the sorts of roles that are unlikely to be covered by these rules include:
- Admin roles
- Social media management
- Graphic design
- Trustee (of charities that are not specifically established for children or protected adults)
- Environmental roles such as beach cleans
- Events support
- Gardening
- Animal care
To find volunteering opportunities you can:
- Reach out to your local Third Sector Interface. Contact details in each local authority can be found on the Scottish Government website. Third Sector Interfaces support all of the charities and community groups in their local authority area. That means you can disclose your criminal record to a staff member at the Third Sector Interface and they can support you in finding an appropriate role in a supportive organisation. You will still have to disclose your criminal record to the organisation you decide to volunteer with but at least it will save you having to disclose it multiple times whilst you look for a suitable opportunity.
- Search opportunities listed on Volunteer Scotland’s website.
- Check local community notice boards, libraries, etc.
Sharing your lived experience
There are more and more opportunities these days to share your experiences to help to improve services and to bring about change. That could be through sharing your experience as a case study or taking part in a more formal group like an Advisory Panel.
If you make the decision to share your story, it's important that you understand your rights and feel comfortable with what you are choosing to share.
The following points might help you:
- Remember you are an expert in your own experience. Whatever you might have felt is completely valid.
- It's perfectly reasonable to set boundaries around the parts of your experience you want to answer questions on / share. If there are things that you would rather not discuss, you may want to make that clear from the outset to avoid intrusive questioning.
- Are you being paid for your time / contribution? Although there are many reasons to give your time voluntarily, you may want to consider whether you feel you would rather be paid for your contribution. This would likely be dependent on the individual organisation. For example, a statutory service or very large charity is likely to have more resources available to them than a small charity.
- Do you understand exactly what is going to be done with the information you share? It is important to understand what your story will be used for. Will it be shared publicly? Will it be shared in electronic or print form? Will you be identifiable or will you be anonymous? The answers to these questions might inform your decision.
- Can you withdraw your consent if you change your mind? In some circumstances it is very easy to ask an organistaion to stop sharing your experience (for example, if it was shared on social media, the post could be deleted). However, in some circumstances it would be more difficult (for example, if your story has been printed on promotional materials that have been distributed to lots of other organisations). If you will not be able to withdraw your consent later, you may want to spend a little more time considering whether sharing your story is the right thing for you.
Signposting
The following organisations offer support on this topic.
.png)
