Volunteers Week 2024 starts next week from Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th June. The week is a celebration of volunteers and encourages organisations to thank their volunteers for everything they do.

Any organisation can be involved and we are especially excited to see organisations from across the heritage sector get involved. Next week organisations including National Galleries Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Glasgow Women’s Library, National Mining Museum Scotland, Edinburgh Zoo and The Scottish Railway Preservation Society will be providing their volunteers with special opportunities and events such as behind the scenes tours and talks to their own and each others volunteers.

The Scottish Railway Preservation Society, who we have been following for our A Year in the Life of a Community Archive project, will be putting on a range of activities such as a ride on their heritage railway and a visit to their archive for volunteers to explore!

Volunteering is a crucial aspect of the heritage sector and its important to highlight the incredible work that volunteers do to benefit organisations. It is also important that the benefits of volunteering to individuals is also promoted. The Scottish Council on Archives has been working with the Make Your Mark campaign that aims to increase and diverse volunteers in heritage in Scotland and are thrilled to see this campaign grow.

Have a look at the hashtag #VolunteersWeekScot on socials to see what organisations are doing to celebrate their volunteers.