Whether you are already volunteering or just thinking about it, The Saltire Awards are for you! Try out volunteering by taking part in a team challenge or start learning new skills with the Saltire Approach. Not only does it look great on your CV but you can also earn Young Scot Reward Points which could entitle you to some fantastic prizes.

Saltire Awards now replace MV

Voluntary Action Shetland (VAS) held our last ever MV Award ceremony in March 2012. You can see the photos here. This ceremony marked, not only the end of 6 years of the hugely popular MV scheme in Shetland, but also the launch of its successor: ‘Saltire’. The Saltire Awards now take the place of MV nationally, and will offer young people a more complete way to recognise their volunteering efforts.

The four main sections to the Saltire Awards are:

The Challenge: for 12 to 15 year olds; this is designed to recognise people who experience volunteering as part of a group.
The Approach: for 12 to 14 year olds; this is designed to recognise individuals as they begin their volunteering journey, with awards for 10 and 25 hours of volunteering.
The Ascent: for 14 to 25 year olds; this is designed for young people who make a commitment to volunteering with certificates of completion at 50, 100 and 200 hours.
The Summit: for 16 to 25 year olds; for young people who exceed the 200 hours at ‘the Ascent’ and continue to volunteer and are nominated to receive the ‘Summit’ award.

As with MV, full support for the awards and all your paperwork will be provided by VAS.

The Saltire Award process will be continued from the existing MV Awards, so young people currently logging MV Award hours will be automatically transferred to Saltire. The new awards allow us for the first time to recognise at national level volunteering undertaken by Under-16s and allows us to recognise those who continue to volunteer after completing 200 hours of volunteering. The process links perfectly with learning outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence, with a ‘Volunteer Journal’ available for recognising the completion of learning outcomes for each young person. These awards can also run alongside other awards such as Duke of Edinburgh and Youth Achievement Awards.

Please see further information online at The Saltire Awards Website or contact:
Gwen Williamson, Youth Volunteering Development Worker, gwen.williamson@shetland.org 01595 743911

Please also contact us if you would like help with recruiting volunteers for your group/organisation.