Voluntary Action

Annual Review 2012 – 2013 1

Chairman’s Foreword VAS has just recorded its busiest year, reporting record service delivery levels and Market House footfall. All the Market House resident organisations are working at capacity; our services to the wider third sector are similarly stretched. Our appointment by government as Shetland’s Interface Organisation requires extensive consultations with local statutory agencies as a partner in the Community Planning Process and signatory to the Single Outcome Agreement - the joint plans for all SIC/NHS Shetland/ Third Sector services for the forthcoming year. VAS staff is offering more support services to the wider Shetland third sector which now include, e.g., independent inspection of accounts and which saves many organisations the rising costs of external audits. We currently contract with SIC through Service Level Agreements to deliver a range of public services. These range through a wide spectrum of services to individuals and groups, from Advocacy to the Shetland Pre- School Playgroup movement. There are currently 38 of these Service Level Agreements operational within the Shetland community. All of the foregoing is taking its toll of available community voluntary capacity. Within Market House itself there are 78 volunteers delivering services through our various resident groups, supported by 160 volunteer management board/committee members. Add to those the many sports and youth organisations, hall committees, Community Councils and a hundred or so special interest groups and volunteer numbers across Shetland probably exceed 3,000 (1,000 voluntary groups registered within Shetland, 295 of whom are charities). Despite these record-breaking volunteering levels, there remains a shortage of volunteers in key service areas as well as among community groups. It is, therefore, most gratifying to reflect on a year producing a growing number of younger volunteers as witnessed by the three volunteer award ceremonies held to honour the achievements of our young volunteers. The third annual presentation of the joint VAS/ The Rotary Club of Shetland sponsored Shetland Youth Awards, welcomed 130 guests led by our MSP Tavish Scott, to applaud 28 high achieving young volunteers from 13 organisations. The Saltire Awards ceremony saw Convener Malcolm Bell present 5 group awards and 170 individual certificates. These awards reflect well on the community commitment of our young Shetlanders and gives grounds for optimism for the future of volunteering, so important to our community. News of spending cuts affecting local and national public services dominating our local media resonates as just as loudly around Shetland’s Voluntary/Third Sector. During the present financial year VAS will be even harder pressed to respond to the eternal conundrum – how does one do more with less? A massive challenge, indeed, for already hard pressed third sector groups coping with unprecedented demand levels; a challenge to preoccupy us as we try to cut and paste our way through the year. It is disappointing to report on our failure to take over services at Freefield Centre. Our last minute inclusion in an ad hoc rescue group gave little scope to structure a volunteer replacement service which could have seen a better community outcome. We look forward to future closer working with our statutory partners to produce a more measured response to changing community care needs. There is an expectation that the third sector will help alleviate, where appropriate, the effect of reduced council services. VAS’s turnover, currently, just over £791K, is hard pressed to maintain present services; we live on a financial knife-edge, relying heavily on external funding and good management to keep the business solvent. Congratulations to our staff that have assisted organisations within Market House to secure £0.5m of external funding during the past year, a quite magnificent achievement. Our thanks are due to and Shetland Charitable Trust without whose continuing support we would find it difficult to function at anything approaching the level we do. We owe our very existence to ’s core funding and the support of the Third Sector team of civil servants. It is unrealistic to expect increased public grant assistance for our sector in the current economic climate; instead we are investigating social enterprise business opportunities in a search for an alternative income stream to try to meet a seemingly ever-increasing demand for our services. So we travel ever hopefully; a skilled and enthusiastic staff team, led by Catherine Hughson are the well whence flows the hope! My thanks are due to them as well as to a supportive Management Board. Gussie Angus Chairman

Front cover: Northern Focus Parkour members, left to Right, Callum Aitchison, Brendan Johnson, Chris Wright, Ceileidh Mercer and Jakob Thorn. Photo by Dave Donaldson 21 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND MARKET HOUSE MISSION STATEMENT: Voluntary Action Shetland seeks Each local authority area in Scotland has a Third Sector Interface to support, promote, develop and to respond to and support voluntary represent the third sector: services in Shetland by meeting present and emerging needs, developing and ■ Community groups. promoting new ways of responding and ■ Voluntary organisations. encouraging people in Shetland to offer ■ Social enterprises. voluntary service to their community.

■ Volunteering. 1. Building the third sector relationship The Interface is also the vital connection between with community planning the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) and the third sector. CPPs are made up of public, private During the year we have been involved in the and third sector bodies including the local authority, restructuring of community planning locally and health board, fire, police, enterprise agency and contributed to the indicators and outcomes for others. They are tasked with ensuring “public the single outcome agreement (SOA). We have services provided in the area of the local authority been involved in the community capacity building are provided and the planning of that provision workshop on the Change Fund Action Plan and takes place” (Local Government in Scotland Act provided input into the joint commissioning strategy 2003). Local authorities have a duty to initiate, that has been submitted to government. maintain and facilitate this process and Scottish Ministers have a duty to promote and encourage We have attended 3 meetings of Community the use of Community Planning. Planning and Performance Group which monitors the SOA against the outcomes, and we have Voluntary Action Shetland is recognised by the attended 6 meetings of strategic leads and 1 Community Planning Partnership as the interface seminar developing the SOA local outcomes and organisation for Shetland. A proportion of our indicators for 20013-2014. This seminar included funding comes through the Scottish Government members of the Third Sector Forum, a forum open to deliver services in four main areas of activity to third sector organisations, and this informed which are, supporting and developing a strong third the indicators where third sector organisations are sector, building the third sector relationship with delivering services on behalf of the Council. community planning, volunteering development and social enterprise development. The information Change Fund is the government initiative whereby in the annual report shows some of the project the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and achievements and the activities during the year COSLA aim to engage all interests across Scotland 2012 – 2013. to reshape care and support services in order to meet the national policy objectives in ways that Voluntary Action Shetland’s Vision are sustainable and fair. Locally this is done in Voluntary Action Shetland’s vision for Shetland is partnership with SIC, NHS and VAS and is lead by where all citizens and organisations are empowered the Director of Community Care. As a partner we and enabled to grow a strong and vibrant continue to attend Community Health and Care community. Partnership and the Management Team meetings, delivering on various strands of the change plan ■ To support the growth, capacity and including carers support and community capacity development of the third sector in building. We have commissioned a research into the Shetland. mapping of services, public, private or third sector, throughout Shetland to identify gaps in provision ■ To continue to promote volunteering and also how existing services can be adapted to through the Saltire Awards and locally meet demand including increasing the capacity of developed award schemes. the third sector to deliver services. A carers’ centre ■ To utilise the knowledge of the skills and has been developed and is now running in Market expertise of the third sector to enhance House; an outreach project is in the development delivery of local services. phase that will go to the outer islands and more remote areas of Shetland. We have assisted ■ To support and encourage the Crossroads in gaining funding to enhance their development of social enterprises. service through the change fund. 2 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND MARKET HOUSE cont.

Third Sector organisations continue to deliver information on projects, future development, the commissioned services on behalf of the local authority. highs and lows and discussion around sustainability Currently 38 services are being delivered this way. and exploring potential for partnership working with Funding for many organisations continues to be existing and new organisations. The Development Trust problematic with external funding agencies reporting Association Scotland liaised with the network to deliver that most of their funding streams are oversubscribed. Community Asset training. We provided advice on This year has seen the added problem of local authority coastal communities funding, and continue to support cuts impacting on some of the services delivered development trusts with trust deeds. We support and through the sector. Bureaucracy can stifle development attend meetings of the Social Economy and Community in some local organisations when local funders require Regeneration Partnership. We facilitated Partnership for repayment of surplus where external funding has been Enterprise training with the Social Enterprise Academy, secured. exploring funding as part of the capacity building training. We continue to represent the interests of the sector on various strategic forums; a full table of representation We support the new Shetland Community Benefit can be accessed http://shetland-communities.org.uk/ Fund Ltd, through board meetings, various meetings subsites/vas/representation.htm with Viking Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy to negotiate for the community benefit fund that is 2. Supporting a Strong Third Sector expected to be worth over £2 million a year for the 25- Through Market House we support the 19 resident year life of the project. organisations on a daily basis and we also provide We are partners in the decision process to award access to the facilities of Market House for external funding through the LEADER and Convergence funds. organisations. We also are responsible for the day to day management of Disability Shetland and the services 4. Volunteering they provide to their clients. This financial year we have We continue to publish the Voluntary Voice leaflet had over 11,144, visitors to Market House; this figure three issues per year. The Third and Independent Sector does not include the numbers utilising Market House Partnership administered by Voluntary Action Shetland out with normal working hours. These visitors either circulates information on various issues to over 99 org­ receive services, access the facilities for training or anisations and have issued 25 e-mail bulletins this year. obtain support. Saltire Awards – we have delivered presentations in the The Independent Examination of Accounts service to 8 high schools to all year groups and organised our third sector organisations has proved very popular with first award ceremony in March 2013, where volunteers groups with 55 third sector organisations having their received their certificates. Since its launch in April accounts examined by our fully trained staff, including 2012 300 young people have registered for the Saltire community halls, community councils and various other Scheme. community organisations and charities. Volunteering staff delivered a presentation to a primary As one of the registered bodies in Shetland that can act school assembly at the request of the head teacher – for third sector organisations, we process applications this went really well with a number of questions and a to the PVG Scheme. We also hold Trusted Partner lot of excitement amongst the younger age group. accreditation for Disclosure Scotland in Shetland. This year we assisted 88 organisations with their PVG checks Shetland Youth Volunteering Awards 2012. Regular for volunteers and paid staff. meetings have been held with voluntary panel to help organise the annual awards sponsored by Voluntary VAS has assisted organisations, predominately within Action Shetland and the Rotary Club of Shetland. The Market House, with funding applications to funders Civic Awards Ceremony was held to coincide with and acted as referees. Successful funding for this Make a Difference Day. A total of 28 nominations financial year is valued at £1,619,828 of which for individual volunteers and 13 nominations for £522,065 was from external agencies, fund raising organisations and groups. and donations. We have promoted volunteering, taking part in the We continue as the business manager for the New Anderson High School Local Opportunities Day, the Shetlander, the quarterly literary magazine that VAS Easter Fair; promotional display boards have been publishes items of local interest. This magazine is located in the sports centre, local supermarket, and thought to the oldest literacy magazine in Scotland shopping centre. and thanks must go to the dedicated committee and contributors. During the year VAS relied on volunteers for the provision of some services, especially the Shetland 3. Social Enterprise Befriending scheme and the New Shetlander. A total of We held a Social Enterprise Network event on the 30 78 volunteers contributed towards the total volunteer August hosted by Northmavine Development Company hours for the year of 4,356. The estimated monetary which gave social enterprises the opportunity to share value of this is £65,340. 3 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND

Gussie Angus, left, Nial Pearson and Catherine Hughson, 3rd and 4th right from VAS with representatives from Advocacy, Shetland Befriending Scheme and Peer Education Project.

Volunteer Friendly The Volunteer Friendly Award is a simple, user-friendly quality standard designed to support, recognise and reward groups who are good at working with volunteers. Once achieved, voluntary groups may use the award to support them with funding grants and volunteer recruitment. Voluntary Action Shetland was delighted to announce the first Volunteer Friendly Award for excellence in Shetland presented to Shetland Community Mediation on the 25th September 2012.

Following this very successful event Voluntary Action Shetland received a further 3 applications from local organisations wishing to participate in and work towards gaining their own award and on Tuesday the 9th April 2013 we hosted a second Volunteer Friendly Award Ceremony for these three organisations, Advocacy Shetland, Shetland Befriending Scheme and The Peer Education Project.

CARERS’ CENTRE This year saw the opening of the VAS Pilot Carers Centre which offers support to Carers through drop in advice sessions and group meetings including Central Carers Craft sessions.

The centre is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays. morning sessions are from 10.00-12.00 and afternoon sessions are from 2.00-4.00 with young carers drop in from 4.00-5.00.

VAS are now producing a Carers newsletter which is sent out on a quarterly basis to everyone on the VAS database. New information leaflets have been developed which are available from all Shetland health centres or from reception at Market House.

This year saw another successful Carers cruise with sixty five Carers joining the boat from Unst, Yell and Toft. Various support agencies were represented who gave short talks about the many ways they can help carers. This then enabled carers to identify and access advice and make future appointments. We had an onboard alternative therapist to advise on relaxation methods and artist Ana Horne who ran craft sessions.

VAS are now developing an outreach service to cover the outlying areas such as Unst and north mainland and will be developing a virtual Carers centre over the year ahead. 4 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND

42 THE NEW SHETLANDER – VOAR 2013 BOOK reviews It’s easy for us to access huge amounts of information An Orkney Anthology: selected Works of online, but scholars of Marwick’s era didn’t have that Ernest Walker Marwick, volume 2 luxury. Although the footnotes give good information about the provenance of Marwick’s articles, I would The Orcadian Ltd, £30 have liked to know a little bit more about his research methods. It isn’t clear, for example, how widely he his volume, which runs to nearly 600 pages, travelled in search of these obscure nuggets of Orkney Tis the second collection of pieces by the great information. Did he, like Peter Jamieson in Shetland, Orcadian scholar, journalist and broadcaster Ernest write dozens of letters to research facilities all over the Walker Marwick. Volume one came out in 1991 and, world, or was he someone who spent his holidays in taken individually or together, the two books give record offices and libraries outside Orkney? Not that it readers an excellent view of Marwick’s broad, curious really makes any difference – the work stands up on its and erudite mind. This new publication, which is own – but in a big, definitive volume like this, a little very nicely produced by The Orcadian Ltd, begins The New bit more background information about Marwick at with a long section on Orcadians’ exploits overseas, work might have given us a better picture of the kind especially those who worked for the Hudson Bay of researcher he was. Company. It then moves through sections on notable The next two sections of the book – although there Orkney people, literature, dialect, Marwick’s fiction, is such considerable overlap that I think they could and several segments of general and diffuse short easily have been combined – are on Orcadians who pieces. Orkney is at the centre of everything here – made a name for themselves in some way. A large although, as this summary of the contents suggests, number of these pieces are on Orcadian writers, and Marwick’s interests were wide. Shetlanderit was this part of the book that I liked best. Some of This year the popular magazine received Contents No. 263 This catholic interest in all things Orcadian was the essays are unusually frank. The piece on Hugh complemented by Marwick’s productivity as a Voar Issue 2013 3 editorial Marwick (no relation), for instance, doesn’t paint writer. Lots of people are interested in the culture a very flattering picture of the older man, although a facelift with new typeface and and history of their islands, but few could match 4 The last shotit seems to me scrupulously fair-minded and free of the sheer amount Marwick wrote. There isn’t really malice.by James It remained Sinclair unpublished in Ernest Marwick’s 7 a comparable figure in Shetland that I can6 e thinkmmer of. gös lifetime,poems which perhaps tells us something about how formatting. Voluntary Action Shetland T.M.Y. Manson is probably the closest we could come hard it sometimesby Christine is to De be Luca a writer in a small place. His – he was a newspaper man and a very able scholar7 The – wartimewriting watchers about contemporary figures such as Robert but his output wasn’t as prodigious as Marwick’s. A Rendall, Georgeby Ian Mackay Tait Brown, Eric Linklater and the introduction says, Marwick’s papers in the17 Orkney is the business manager for the New hairst by the artist Stanley Cursister, on the other hand, is archives amount to over 1700 files and occupy 11m of Yvonne Gray s affectionate and revealing. One wonders why Orkney shelf space. This doesn’t include the 270 recordings19 A miner’s wifemanages to have so many figures of such standing – he made. His life as a journalist may have served by Tim Senften Shetlander, the quarterly literary magazine Edwin Muir is another one – whereas there isn’t really him well in this respect: newspaper people have22 Reflections to on a phenomenon anybody of that stature from Shetland. 22 write quickly and under pressure, whereas academics 25 by Catherine generally have more time. One wonders if somebodyextract fae As I say, Marwick’s work on otheremslie writers was, that publishes items of local interest. Mysteryfor me, theat da most Laird’s enjoyable part of this book. When in a university department, rather than in a newsroom 29 I read further through thehaa volume, by however, the clear or writing for an upcoming radio broadcast, wouldLay du on an aamos … Bjorn Sandison thematic divisions of the first half seemed to be much have written quite as much as Marwick did. by Jenny Murray The New Shetlander is published quarterly 33 The shipyardless disaster definite. The last third, for example, is a long That isn’t to say that Marwick wasn’t an extremely collection of mostly very short pieces, grouped under competent scholar or that his work isn’t based on de by Bryden Jacobson 37 Reviews the heading ‘Essays and comments’. Much of this and serious research. The material on Orkney emigrants is about what we would nowadays call ‘heritage’ – and gives space to writers, poets, critics and colonists as the beginning of the book is the most ep pieces on weather, folklore, the ba and so on – but academic section of the book, and he obviouslyPoetry had 30 Stella Sutherland,occasionally Donald Marwick Murray, tries hisJen hand hadfield, at some social a very good handle on how, in a pre-internet age, to Jim Mainland,criticism. Gordon The results Dargie, of Paolothis are Dante mixed. There is a short and commentators. This magazine is work with research facilities outside his native isles. essay about the benefits of putting children to work at Cover Picture a young age, for example, that one can imagine some more‘emmer extreme gös take-off’ Tories nodding agreeably to; but, in his thought to the oldest literacy magazine in by Brydon Thomason Editors: Laureen Johnson and Brian Smith Scotland and is supported by a committee Business Manager: Editorial Committee:

Mary Blance, Karen Eunson, Catherine Hughson Annmarie Scollay, Jim Mainland, Assistant Business Manager: Publishers:

Jenny Murray, James Sinclair, Anne Robertson Voluntary Action Shetland, of dedicated volunteers, contributors and Mark Smith, Anna Sutherland, Ian Tait Market House, 14 Market Street, Contributions: , Shetland ZE1 0JP Advertisement and business office: Contributions with a Shetland e-mail:- [email protected] Voluntary Action Shetland, flavour or www.va-shetland.org.uk Market House, of topical advertisers. welcomed at the above interest address. will 14 Market Street, Please be Subscriptions: enclose Lerwick, articles S.A.E. for return Annual if required subscription Shetland ZE1 0JP of Copy date: UK £12.00; rates (4 issues): Tel: Lerwick (01595) 743902 Overseas Airmail Europe Last – Surface £20.00; Fax: Lerwick (01595) 696787 date issue for copy Overseas – Airmail £24.00 £20.00; e-mail: [email protected] – Monday for the Simmer 29th 2013 Designed and printed by: Back numbers: April 2013

Back Shetland Litho numbers Gremista, Lerwick from 60 upwards available Shetland ZE1 0PX Tel: 01595 742000

BBC Children In Need Appeal Voluntary Action Shetland is the area distributor for the small grant welfare fund which awards grants to families with children aged 18 and under who are experiencing financial difficulties. These grants are awarded for clothes, shoes and special projects and are allocated on referral from social workers, doctors, health visitors, teachers and other agencies. This year Voluntary Action Shetland has awarded 75 grants and assisted 145 children.

PVG Scheme Disclosures As one of the registered bodies in Shetland that can act for voluntary organisations, we process and support their applications to the PVG Scheme. The PVG Scheme replaces enhanced disclosure for individuals working with vulnerable groups. We also hold Trusted Partner accreditation for Disclosure Scotland in Shetland. This year phased retrospective checking was introduced for individuals already volunteering or employed in regulated work and VAS has assisted 88 organisations and processed 123 applications for individuals to join the scheme and 3 updates on behalf of individuals who were already a member of the scheme. 5 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND MARKET HOUSE RESIDENT ORGANISATION CASE STUDY

Current and past staff and committee members of Shetland Pre-school Play.

SHETLAND PRE SCHOOL PLAY (SCIO) buffet, games and lots and lots of anecdotes Shetland Pre-School Play (SPP), the umbrella body regarding the children and the things they say. of Shetland pre-school groups, SPP became a All who had been involved with SPP over this Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation in time received a small commemorative gift. 2012 and also celebrated their 40th anniversary, with six children’s Jamborees. These Jamborees SPP staff took part in, along with Shetland Childcare were very well attended; they started in Unst, then Partnership and the Shetland Library, the government visited districts around Shetland and finished in initiative ‘PlayTalkRead’: the Big Purple Bus. This bus Lerwick. There was a great assortment of toys and went to a variety of venues throughout Shetland and crafts for the children and mums and dads had time the children were entertained on the bus with Book for a chat and to peruse the variety of information Bug sessions, activities and lots more. Many of the available. local halls opened their doors and held activities to entertain children and parents while those waiting to SPP also held a 40th anniversary social evening for board the bus gained access. Many of the local pre past and present SPP Committee Members and school groups attended and the consensus was Fieldworkers. It was a great success with a Chinese it was a huge hit. 6 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND Disability shetland - MARKET HOUSE RESIDENT ORGANISATION

Disability Shetland – Celebrates 25 years adults with additional support needs, access panel, Disability Shetland, originally named the Council access audits, access guide information, wheelchair for Disability, celebrated its 25 years anniversary in lending service, advice on Equality Act 2010, disability November 2012 with a party in Islesburgh for clients, awareness training, support to families, support to friends, supporters, volunteers and staff. A great disability groups and representation of disabled persons afternoon was held by all with activities for all ages on local multi agency committees. and a birthday cake. Participants at the party enjoyed loads of activities including a Boccia session lead by the 96 clients attend eight different clubs run by Disability Youth Sports Club leader, soft play and crafts with the Shetland, in Unst, the North Mainland and Lerwick. Saturday Club music and a buffet provided by trustees. Disability Shetland’s aim is to support the efforts of Disability Shetland took its present name in 1987 and disabled people to realise their full potential in all its current activities include clubs for children and areas of life.

Marie Williamson, Chair of Disabilty Shetland cuts the anniversary cake.

Shetland Community Bike Project An example of the very worthwhile volunteering done in the isles is demonstrated by the Shetland Community Bike Project where they celebrated two of their volunteers contribution to the project by presenting certificates produced by VAS.

Derek MacKay MSP, Minister for Local Government and Planning, who was visiting Shetland, presented John Caroline Adamson, manager with Derek Mackay, MSP Gray with an award for an outstanding contribution by and John Gray. volunteering at Shetland Bike Project for 2500 hours and Robert Arthur received an award for his valuable contribution of 500 hours.

Mr Gray has been volunteering at the bike project doing repairs, servicing, dealing with customers and supporting clients who attend the project. He said: “Volunteering at the bike project has given me a new lease of life after losing work due to having a stroke. I enjoy repairing things and making them useable again. I’ve met a lot of people here and thanks to Maureen at the job centre for encouraging me to take up the voluntary role”. Mr Arthur’s voluntary work has included doing repairs, cleaning, working with the petty cash and pricing stock. He said: “Volunteering has given me the chance to mix with the community.” Volunteer Robert Arthur receiving his certificate. 7 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND YOUTH VOLUNTEERING

YOUTH VOLUNTEERING – SHETLAND YOUTH VOLUNTEERING AWARD Once again celebrating, recognising and rewarding young volunteers’ success continues to be part of Voluntary Action Shetland core activities. The third annual Shetland Youth Volunteering Awards (SYVA) presentation ceremony took place in Lerwick Town Hall on Tuesday 6th November 2012. The event was attended by over 130 guests and was timed to coincide with Make a Difference Day, the UK’s biggest day of volunteering and was organised and supported by Voluntary Action Shetland and The Rotary Club of Shetland. The two trophies were sponsored by Harry’s Department Store and Unison. This year SYVA received 28 nominations for individual volunteers and 13 nominations for organisations and groups. Last year’s winner Claire Antonio and local MSP Tavish Scott were on hand to issue certificates and to announce the eventual winners of the awards.

Shetland Youth Information Service Peer Education Project received the 2012 organisational award. The group reported that their prize money was spent on celebrating their volunteers and providing each of them with a specially developed toolkit to deliver their workshops throughout Shetland.

Christopher Wright was announced as the 2012 individual winner. In accepting the plaque, he said he was “really chuffed” to be receiving the award. He has since spent his prize money on further developing his Parkour Skills at a training course in London. Christopher delivered a video via social media site youtube to the SYVA committee thanking them for helping him to attend the training and to develop his skills and volunteering opportunities. He can be seen demontrating his skills on the front cover of this annual review.

On 1st April 2012 the Scottish Governments replaced the very successful MV Scheme with the new Saltire youth volunteering scheme. The Saltire awards now cater for volunteers as young as 12 and awards are issued to volunteers who have completed 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 hours of volunteering. The awards also offer special certificates for groups of volunteers hosting one off events and volunteers who have made an outstanding contribution to their volunteering.

Voluntary Action Shetland hosted the first ever Saltire Award ceremony in Mareel on the 27 March 2013. Over 150 guests that included volunteers and their families and supervisors attended the event. Shetland Islands Council Convenor Malcolm Bell was delighted to be invited to issue the young volunteers with their certificates. Overall, 5 groups of volunteers received Challenge (group volunteering) awards, 190 volunteers achieved Approach (10 and 25 hour) awards, 153 Ascent (50, 100, 200 and 500 hour) awards and 9 Summit (outstanding contribution) awards were distributed.

Due to changes in the age range which Saltire supports, the number of young people and organisations registering for Saltire has risen significantly this year. Over 300 new volunteers have registered since the introduction of Saltire. 8 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND SHETLAND BEFRIENDING SCHEME

Shetland Befriending Scheme The Shetland Befriending Scheme successfully achieved the Volunteer Friendly Award in February 2013 and are delighted with this achievement. The award is valid for 3 years until February 2016. The Volunteer Friendly Award is a simple, user friendly quality standard designed by Volunteer Centre Dundee to support, recognise and reward groups who are good at involving volunteers. Volunteer Friendly involves working through a checklist of best practice, organised into five strands. This produces an action plan to help you to develop a portfolio of evidence showing the quality of your work with volunteers. The five strands are: Commitment to Involving Volunteers, Making Volunteering Happen, Fair and Equal Volunteering, Volunteering Tasks & Getting Them Done and Celebrating Volunteers’ Contributions. We have been successful securing additional funding for two of our sections. The Lottery’s Young Start funding stream has awarded £29,217 to enable the Young Adults section to continue for another financial year until March 2014. We also received an award of £54,107 from Children in Need for the Additional Support Needs section of the Scheme, and this award is for 3 years until July 2016. We continue to support clients and volunteers undertake activities that enhance the life choices of vulnerable children and adults, currently across all four schemes we have 44 volunteers matched with children and adults. We have delivered training to volunteers that included communication skills, boundaries and confidentiality, personal safety, child development, additional support needs, child protection, anti discriminative practice, life stage development, dementia awareness and adult protection. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our funders, Shetland Charitable Trust, Shetland Islands Council, Scottish Community Foundation, The Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust, The Robertson Trust, The Moffat Charitable Trust and The Big Lottery Fund. Also a huge heartfelt thank you to all volunteers working with the scheme as without their committed contribution, the scheme would be unable to offer this valuable support to its service users. We continue to look for volunteers in order to deliver our service for all sections and would be delighted to hear from anyone who is interested in volunteering with us. As our service is Shetland wide we are keen to hear from people who live in all areas of Shetland. For further information please contact the scheme directly on 01595 743907 or email [email protected] or check out our website for further information: www.shetland-communities.org.uk/ shetland-befriending

VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND FUND RAISING EVENTS

Market House Easter Fair VAS held an Easter Fair in Market House to promote the work of the third sector to the public; 116 people attended the event and 13 local organisations had Easter craft and information stalls: Community Alcohol and Drugs Services Shetland, Moving On Employment Project, Shetland Islands Citizens Advice Bureau, With You For You, Disability Shetland, Carers Link Group, Adult and Child Protection, Alzheimer Scotland, Voluntary Action Shetland, Shetland Befriending Scheme, Vision Shetland and Sexual Abuse Survivors Support Group, with WRVS providing teas. The chosen charity to benefit from Easter Fair was the Sumburgh Airport Memorial Shetland Appeal £240 was presented to members of their committee.

Pancreatic Cancer Awareness To raise awareness of Pancreatic Cancer staff and Voluntary Action Shetland held a cake sale, the proceeds were donated to Macmillan Cancer Shetland Appeal a total of £156 was raised.

Mending Broken Hearts Appeal – British Heart Foundation Market House staff supported Mending Broken Hearts week that raised awareness of dealing with heart problems. During the week we held raffles, sold pin badges, sold home bakes, provided information, celebrated wear it red for a day and did a healthy walk during a lunch hour, total raised was £205 for the British Heart Foundation. 9 VOLUNTARY ACTION SHETLAND

VAS Staff 2012/2013 Catherine Hughson Executive Officer...... 743901 Anne Robertson Development Officer...... 743902 Lynette Nicol Finance Officer...... 743903 Wendy Hand Development Worker...... 743905 Kirsten Harcus Support Worker (Job Share)...... 743980 Jo Jack Support Worker...... 743923 Val Walterson Receptionist...... 743900 Kate Massie Administration Assistant - ASCC...... 743906 Ellen Hughson Administration Assistant...... 743912 Sue Beer Development Worker - Volunteering...... 743909 Neil Pearson Youth Volunteering Development Worker...... 743910 Kathleen Williamson Volunteer Placement and Support Worker...... 743911 Lynn Tulloch Shetland Befriending Scheme Co-ordinator...... 743907 Lauren Peterson Shetland Befriending Scheme Development Worker...... 743908 Laura Russell Shetland Befriending Scheme Development Worker...... 743946 Amanda Brown Shetland Befriending Scheme Development Worker...... 743964 Elaine Mouat Shetland Befriending Scheme Development Worker...... 745898 Hansen Black Parent Link Co-ordinator...... 743952 Claire Antonio Cleaner VAS Directors 2012/2013 • Mr Leslie Angus Chairman • Mr Les Irving Vice Chairman • Mr Alec Miller Finance Director • • Mr Willie Henderson Director • Mr John Hunter Director • Mrs Margaret Stevenson Director • • Mrs Marilyn Stewart Director • Mr James Shepherd Director • Mr Allison Duncan Director • Extract of accounts INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT – 31 MARCH 2013 2013 2012 £ £ £ £ INCOME Grant income 677,992 600,326 Other income 116,777 151,287 ______794,769 751,613 EXPENDITURE Charitable activities 794,664 765,288 Governance costs 11,438 10,876 ______806,102 776,164 ______DEFICIT OF INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE (11,333) (24,551) Bank interest receivable 2,136 1,871 ______DEFICIT BEFORE TRANSFERS (9,197) (22,680) Capital Reserves movement 100,325 100,334 ______INCREASE IN INCOME FUNDS 91,128 77,654 ======BALANCE SHEET – 31 March 2013 2013 2012 £ £ £ £ FIXED ASSETS Tangible assets 1,563,847 1,663,872 CURRENT ASSETS Debtors 19,014 22,675 Cash at bank and in hand 426,705 305,360 ______445,719 328,035 CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year (47,750) (20,894) ______NET CURRENT ASSETS 397,969 307,141 ______TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 1,961,816 1,971,013 ======REPRESENTED BY Restricted capital funds 1,561,569 1,661,894 Restricted income funds 314,427 227,452 Unrestricted income funds 85,820 81,667 ______TOTAL FUNDS 1,961,816 1,971,013 ======The figures contained within the income and expenditure account and the balance sheet shown above were extracted from the company’s audited financial statements. These were approved by the board of directors on 25 June 2013.

A copy of the company’s audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2013 can be obtained from our main office or by writing to the following address: Registrar of Companies, Companies House, 4th Floor, Quay 2, 139 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh EH3 9FF (quoting ref SC165677) Advice VOLUNTARY Good Practice ACTION SHETLAND Market House Support 14 Market Street Lerwick Information Shetland Respresentation ZE1 0JP Development Telephone 01595 743900 Volunteering Fax 01595 696787 Email [email protected] Training Web www.va-shetland.org.uk

A charitable company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 165677 ■ Registered Offfice Market House, 14 Market Street, Lerwick, Shetland ■ Company Secretary Catherine Hughson ■ Recognised by the inland Revenue as a Scottish Charity No. SC017286 Designed and printed by Shetland Litho, Gremista, Lerwick. Telephone 01595 742000