Sarah volunteers to support race equality in Edinburgh
We speak to Sarah Ford-Hutchinson, Communications Manager for the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability who challenged herself to use her Day to Make a Difference before the end of 2020.
The University’s A Day to Make a Difference entitles every staff member to an additional day of paid leave to volunteer for a charity, organisation or other good cause. Sarah used her Day to Make a Difference to find out more about the experience of the BME community in her local area, and contribute to anti-racist work the charity is doing.
“I decided to undertake digital volunteering with SCOREscotland, a voluntary organisation based in South West Edinburgh who support individuals affected by inequality and racial discrimination. It had to be online due to social restrictions.
My department – Social Responsibility and Sustainability – recently pledged to support them as one of the actions we will take to be actively anti-racist. We’re doing this by donating the proceeds of our fundraising activities to them and via volunteering our skills to help them further their work. SCOREscotland have a fantastic Green Futures Project that helps local BME communities to address the causes and effects of climate change, so it’s a really good fit.
Skill-sharing
Volunteering with SCOREscotland was a good match on a personal level too. I recently moved to South-West Edinburgh and know very little about the experience of the BME community here. It was a good chance to learn more about (and contribute to) anti-racist work in my local area.
Volunteering with SCOREscotland was great. I approached them to ask if I could volunteer the use of my communication expertise to support their work. A member of their team arranged a video call with me to learn more about what I could offer and to match that to something they needed help with.
I supported them to create a job description for a Communications Officer role aimed at encouraging a young person to get into that line of work. I also gave them my professional opinion on some brand identity challenges and opportunities they identified, and suggested some next steps to help them strengthen their brand.
The time commitment was totally manageable alongside my workload; I’ll volunteer with them for seven hours in total, the equivalent of one working day. I volunteered for four hours in mid-October, and will volunteer for another three hours in the next few months to assist them in improving their brand identity once they’ve had time to try the things we discussed.
My time at SCOREscotland was such a success, that two of my colleagues from the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability volunteered with them afterwards.
It’s a wonderful benefit of working at the University that we’re able to do this. I’m also going to start volunteering more regularly outside of work. Knowing that I have a day of special leave that I can utilise each year is the motivation I needed to kickstart my volunteering. I want to support the issues I believe in and have skills and experience to give, but sometimes finding the time can be the barrier.”