Work hard but keep a healthy work-life balance: wise words from our volunteer Hope as her month with us comes to an end

8 August 2019

This final blog post from me proves the saying: all good things must come to an end.

My last week has once again been amazing. On Tuesday I got to take part in the My Rights My Say consultation day and it was great. It allowed me to work with my peers to create a young people-friendly resource. Being able to share my ideas, listen to other people and then mix them together was such a great thing to do! After the day I took the raw feedback and wrote it up into a report for future use.

It was also exam results day for young people in Scotland!

I was over the moon with my results and I hope that everyone else is, too. I feel it is important to recognise everyone’s achievements, not just those with straight 'A's who we saw on the news in the morning.

Of course it is important to celebrate this success, but it is also necessary to have fair representation of exam results in the media. There may be pupils who have additional support needs or those who just didn’t like the subject, but they were still happy with their results and I believe this should also be shown.

The next day I had my final meeting with Jemma. It has been great to work with her and get to know about the awesome work she does on a day-to-day basis. It has been so valuable to hear about her career journey path so far.

I also briefly got to meet YOMO (the Young Movers), a group of young people from the North East of Glasgow who have been doing some excellent work about food poverty – I can’t wait to see what work they do next!

Also on my task list was to scan all the zines from the Young Media Voices meet-up. It was great to see my own again; it reminded me of how much I enjoyed making one!

Hope sitting in the Debating Chamber in The Scottish Parliament

My final day at Children in Scotland was a really exciting one. I tied up some loose ends with paperwork. I then went with Jemma to Holyrood to meet the Scottish Parliament's Youth Engagement Officer, Hayley Forrester. She was super-lovely, and it was so great to meet her and get a tour of the parliament!

I also want to thank all of my colleagues at Children in Scotland for making me feel so welcome and supporting me throughout my time at the organisation. In particular Jemma, who has taken me under her wing and gave me a valuable insight into life at Children in Scotland.

I would fully recommend anyone to get involved with either their local or a national youth organisation and ask what you can do to help. Get involved with everything, even if it doesn't interest you because you may find a new interest! Also remember to work hard but don’t burn yourself out; you’ll get as much out of your placement as you put into it.

If you'd like to find out more about volunteer opportunities with Children in Scotland, contact Laura – 0131 313 2322.
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