Volunteers’ Week is celebrated every year and is a chance to recognise the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK.
It is an opportunity to celebrate volunteering in all its diversity – something that we, at Scottish Drugs Forum, feel very strongly about.
SDF has a volunteering programme of involving people with lived and living experience of substance use problems, with our Peer Research Programme being a key part of that activity.
Peer research allows the voices of people who have experienced or are experiencing substance use problem to be heard where decisions are being made.
Our peer research volunteers are trained to design and carry out surveys and interviews with people who have living experience of substance use-related problems.
The programme provides opportunities for people to gain work experience, training and support that, for some, is a valuable part of their pathway to recovery, educucation, employment or other volunteering opportunities.
As recognition of Scottish Drugs Forum’s provision of support and opportunities for volunteers, last year the organisation was awarded a prestigious Investing in Volunteers award – a benchmark of quality throughout the UK, presented to organisations that carry out best practice in regards to the management of volunteers.
Currently, SDF has active peer research and service user involvement groups, supported by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships, in East Dunbartonshire, East Ayrshire, Fife and Tayside.
To gain a more personal view of what the programme means for those volunteers in this special week, SDF media volunteer, John Thomson, met up with some of those working in Fife and throughout the week we will share their stories.
Click the below images to view their stories.
