Aberdeen Lord Provost Unveils Volunteer Friendly Award
The Lord Provost of Aberdeen kicked off volunteers’ week 2023 by unveiling local children’s charity Denis Law Legacy Trust’s new Volunteer Friendly award plaque at a ceremony held at Robert Gordon University.
The Volunteer Friendly award is a user-friendly quality standard to support, recognise and reward groups who provide a strong volunteer experience and have a positive track record of involving and supporting volunteers. The charity received the award in 2022 and the standard will last until May 2025.
On top of the unveiling of the award plaque, the Lord Provost also presented several volunteers from Denis Law Legacy Trust with gold pin badges to celebrate their length of service and commitment to volunteering.
Volunteers play a vital role in delivering the charity’s many programmes and activities from its flagship programme Streetsport, which is delivered in partnership with Robert Gordon University, and the trust’s youth forum, Granite City Speaks.
The ceremony also recognised the generosity of Denis Law Legacy Trust’s long-time partners for their help in enabling the charity to thrive and deliver activities that are entirely free for its participants to access.
To do this, the charity introduced for the first time ever the Denis Law Legacy Trust C.O.O’s and Chair’s Choice awards. Congratulations to Lynne Smith of Central Coaches and Alan Anderson of Clark Commercials for winning the C.O.O’s Choice and to Colin Lawson of Colin Lawson Transport and Sandy Dunbar of Grampian Steel for receiving the Chair’s Choice. All of the recipients received a unique certificate and gold pin badge.
The ceremony also included a range of speakers from Mike Melvin from ACVO, Denis Law Legacy Trust trustee David Suttie and Dave Thompson who spoke about his BBC Sports Personality of The Year journey.
Denis Law Legacy Trust Volunteer Officer, Nikki Fyfe said “Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to all our volunteers both past and present. It is thanks to them that Denis Law Legacy Trust continues to grow and make a positive impact to the areas we work in.”
“We are committed to ensuring we have a positive volunteer experience that upskills and rewards the incredible efforts of our volunteers through events like this, quarterly training, certificates and our upcoming annual volunteer celebration.”
“Volunteers give their passion, time and energy to achieve change and volunteers’ week is the perfect time to give back and celebrate that vital work.”
Mike Melvin from ACVO added “Volunteer Friendly award is an important quality standard, so it is a big achievement for any charity to have. The award recognises the big contribution Denis Law Legacy Trust’s volunteers make to communities across Aberdeen and it is great to celebrate that on day one of volunteers week.”
Earlier in the year, Denis Law Legacy Trust ran their annual volunteer survey and found that 96% of respondents would recommend volunteering to a friend, family or colleague; 86% felt their volunteering has a high or significant impact and the vast majority felt supported by staff.
From all of us at Denis Law Legacy Trust and our Streetsport programme, we want to say a huge well done and thank you to all of our fantastic volunteers!