Transforming lives and landscapes through nature volunteering

Curious about how volunteering can change lives and communities? This episode reveals the incredible work of Volunteering Matters, as we celebrate 40 years of Volunteers' Week.

Robert Henderson joins us to spotlight the Volunteering Matters Action Earth project, which has empowered over 100,000 volunteers through more than 3,100 environmental initiatives across Scotland. He shares powerful insights into the unexpected benefits of nature volunteering, including improved physical health, mental well-being, and the formation of cross-generational friendships.

We also meet Joe Knowles, a dedicated Action Earth volunteer, who recounts his journey from retirement to becoming an active community member through creative projects like a Noah garden and bug hotels. Let Joe's passion and commitment inspire you to volunteer and make a difference in your own community.

More Information: 

Volunteering Matters - Action Earth
Action Earth Ideas and Links
Volunteering Matters Scotland
Volunteer in the outdoors
Volunteering with NatureScot

Transcript:

Kirstin: 
Hi and welcome to Make Space for Nature from NatureScot, the podcast that celebrates Scotland's nature, landscapes and species. I'm Kirstin Guthrie and in each episode we'll help you learn more about an amazing natural world. In this episode, Fiona Leith and I chat to Robert Henderson about his work as an engagement manager for Volunteering Matters, a driving force for good when it comes to local, community driven opportunities and benefits.
Then we catch up with Joe Knowles who has volunteered with Action Earth for 14 years. 

So hi Robert, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we're celebrating 40 years of Volunteers Week. Could you explain to our listeners what Volunteering Matters is and how it helps make a difference to people and places at a local level, please?

Robert: 
Well, Voluntary Matters is a UK charity that basically makes change happen. So we work with volunteers and partners to try and transform lives and communities. Voluntary Matters has been around for about 60 years, but we're founded by Alec and Mora Dixon, who had set up voluntary service overseas.

And that was more for doctors and teachers and professionals, and they wanted to set up something that basically offered volunteering opportunities for everyone. So they created CSV, which was Community Service Volunteers. And through that 60-year period, we've evolved a wide range of programs that support hundreds of thousands of volunteers since it actually started. 
We changed our name to Volunteering Matters in about 2015 because we thought that better reflected what we do. Because what we're about is about listening to groups, identifying needs and working with them to create opportunities. And you know, that covers everyone from care experienced young people to mentoring people that are maybe facing life barriers, older people facing isolation, and you know, many, many more. And the project that I run is called Action Earth. It's Voluntary Matters Action Earth, and it's been running in Scotland for 21 years. And we've worked in partnership with NatureScot, who funded us for that period.

And what we do is engage and support volunteers with small grants and advice to help them contribute to environmental action. So since 2004, for example, there have been over 100, 000 volunteers working on the 3100 project and the sort of things that they've done has been sort of creating and maintaining ponds, wildflower meadows, community gardens, local woods, and people have installed bird, bat and insect boxes using those small grants, and it's a great project here.

We're very keen on urban projects and projects involving people that are facing barriers. Half our grants actually go to projects in the lowest 20%. of the Index of Multiple Deprivation, and 25 percent of our volunteers last year had disabilities or defined health issues. So that's a great demonstration of the inclusive nature of the projects that we have.

And we have our own volunteer as well, of course, Joe Knowles, and he's been with me for 14 years, and he's involved at every level and at every stage and, you know, the campaign just wouldn't be the same without Joe. He's got amazing people skills, he's got a problem-solving personality, and he's very much appreciated. Obviously, he's not just a gem, he's a national treasure. 

Kirstin: 
Oh, that's lovely. You know, he certainly is a national treasure, and we did, we were very fortunate to meet Joe, so we'll hear from him later in the podcast. 

Fiona: 
That's lovely to hear those examples, Robert, and, and I've done it myself and volunteered at a community garden, an orchard, and it really no word of a lie, changed my life.
And, the place that we nurtured was changed through us. You must have also seen some great examples of projects across Scotland where volunteering has created great change, and maybe inspired you and stuck with you. Can you share any of those? 

Robert: 
Yes, well, Voluntary Matters Action Earth campaigns have been running over 21 years across all local authority regions in Scotland and the sheer diversity of volunteers, groups, activities has been absolutely amazing.
People that take part in the campaign understand that everything adds up. And so it's almost like no matter how big or small the projects are, it's a positive change that they're making. And all of those positive changes add up to tackle the climate and nature crisis. And we've seen these you know, incredibly wide range of volunteers applying for our grants.

And some of the people who are applying now were children on old projects 20 years ago, and they're now running some of the local groups. So it shows getting in early, you know, really does have an impact. And we've got lots of stories about similar young people finding their feet on green projects, and then they go on to get qualifications and have then gone on to work in the environmental sector.
So that's great news for us. And groups working with people with disabilities always tell us the impact is brilliant for those groups as well, because people see the immediate benefits of getting your hands on the soil, planting. Making boxes and planters. There's something at the end of the day where they can see that they've actually made a difference and a couple of examples.

One of them, the Shettleston community growing project in Glasgow has been with us from the start and we've had an amazing relationship with them. They started as a raised bed project on the grounds of a former industrial estate. And they had large areas of poisoned ground, and they were in an area of multiple deprivation.

But through the efforts of the volunteers in that local community, it's expanded to become an absolute thriving hub. And it's a place where people go to learn and train. It's got amazing resources. It's got a kids group called the Smelly Welly Club, which starts people off, you know, in different age groups and take, it's almost like a school, it takes them through the groups of years and lots of them come back as adults, be volunteers. And we've got a similar project in Edinburgh, which is Bridgend Farmhouse, which we were there at the start of that. It was basically a derelict farmhouse. And it's been transformed into an area of outstanding beauty, and it's got a cafe, they run workshops on environmental living, on bike repairs, and we gave them one of the first grants, and I was actually holding up the plans for the renovation when we had our launch event there. So it was so exciting to be involved right at the start and when you go in there now it's just this amazing central community place for volunteers to go. And I suppose another exciting thing is when volunteers are actually inspired by their own work and they want to share that widely.

We've got volunteers at Bat’s Wood in Fife. And they had experienced years of vandalism by deer and humans when they were trying to plant new trees. So basically, the trees were being nibbled or knocked down. And they decided that they were going to plant this dense, protective willow fedge. And a fedge is a combination of fence and hedge.
And they put that around the trees and they had outstanding results. There was hardly any tree loss at all. And they were really keen to share that experience as widely as possible. And we helped them to do that through press releases and putting it on their social media. 

Fiona: 
Some great examples, there, of what's a really reciprocal relationship when you volunteer, the benefits you get as a person and the spaces you're working on.
But you've spoken a bit there, Robert, about, you know, some of the barriers that people face and some of the access difficulties that people might have. If someone does want to volunteer in the outdoors and does want to help their local environment. How would you suggest they would best go about finding what's available to them?
It can be a bit like your first date. You might know what you want, but how would someone be sure where to find it? 

Robert: 
Well, I think it is like you have to kiss a lot of frogs sometimes. I would say, what to do, contact us first. Every year we have about 135 different projects across Scotland. And we've also got, you know, experience and historic knowledge of all those projects as well.

So, so we're a good first step point, I would say. We've also got a links and ideas page on the Action Earth website, so have a wee look and see if that would help. But we would also say that NatureScot's own website has very good examples of where you can go for volunteering opportunities, and I think we would always promote the Network of Volunteer Centres across Scotland, because their local knowledge is absolutely immense, and they can also help you with project finders, they can also help you with matching to funders that might be available and everything.
And they can also give you advice if you want to set an organization up from scratch. So most areas have a volunteer centre that's within sort of your 30 to 50 mile radius, but they've got very good online sort of presences as well. But also look for groups who are having open days and tester days. If you want to, you know, ally yourself to a local group, and it happens a lot, especially over summer, and it happens more than you might think.

So do check things like Facebook and Twitter and see if there's a sociable setting somewhere that's doing something like this. Because it's a very good way to meet members of a group, discuss what they're up to, and see if you think that's a good fit for you. 

Kirstin: 
Oh, great. Thanks, Robert. That's a great list of links there. I'll make sure they're added to the podcast notes. 
And, you know, just thinking about the volunteering opportunities that they can vary so much. And I imagine, you know, people might, their first thought might be, Oh, I have to match my existing skills or interests with projects, but actually learning new skills outwith your comfort zone. I mean, that's also a great thing to do too. 

Robert: 
Well, it's great when you can match your skills and interests to environmental activities out there. You can find the right group for you. It's a great opportunity to bring your own ideas to the mix. And I'm thinking in particular about Castleton Housing Association.

And a volunteer came to them a couple of years ago saying that they wanted to brighten up all the verandas in their block. And so they liaised with them, they created this Feel Good Verandas project. They basically got as many people in the block to create a green space, you know, like through pots planters. But because the whole veranda, the whole block had something on the veranda, it transformed it into a very green space. And that was a terrific result, which just started from an individual volunteer coming to an organisation that could help her make that happen. So there's lots of projects like that where you can get involved in partnership work.

Things like men's sheds quite often can provide woodworking skills, if your project wants to create habitats for birds and bats, but you're not sure how to build the boxes from a plank of wood. So, so that's great, but sometimes the match isn't the match sometimes just isn't there, and you have to be prepared to do work that's maybe not quite you, what you initially imagined, but which is ultimately still good for the environment, you know, there's that awareness that you have to have the activities need to take place throughout the entire year, and they'll be very varied.

Sometimes they'll be very pleasant out in the sun, and sometimes they might involve some hard or manual labour, In colder weather, so we would encourage people to think about doing things that may be a wee bit outside their comfort zone because those are just as important, but to do what you're capable of and comfortable with, but also make sure other members of your team know what limits you might actually face yourself. 

Kirstin: 
No, that, that's, that's a really important point actually. And you know, we do a bit of volunteering through NatureScot as well on our nature reserves and certainly tree planting was all new to me, but it was a good experience and I did certainly Muscles were used that hadn't been used for a long time.

So, that was a good experience for myself. And you know, talking about our, our, our national nature reserves at NatureScot. There's so many groups of volunteers that really help out on each of the reserves that we have, and they bring so much passion and knowledge to protecting Scotland's nature which we're so proud of.
Do you think volunteers always get the recognition they deserve, or does their work often go unnoticed in communities? 

Robert: 
I don't know if I would say it goes unnoticed, but there should be more recognition. And what we say to groups is that they're the people who need to blow their own trumpets. And in Scotland, we tend to be very modest about our achievements.

And you know, we don't like to be seen to be bragging. But we need volunteers to celebrate what they're doing, because it is amazing. You can't blame people for not knowing what you've done, if you haven't actually told anyone about it. So, Action Earth, when we have approved projects, we give people a press release template, a list of press contact, we advise people on social media use, and if you've ever looked at our posts, we tweet and post every single week about all the amazing stuff we're getting in from people.

But sometimes we're talking it up in a way that the projects are very modest about. We once got international media attention for a frog hotel launch at the Scottish Association for Mental Health Edinburgh office. We were on the Chris Evans radio show, we were on National Public Radio in America, we were on CBC Radio 1 in Canada, and most UK papers covered the story.

And the volunteers at Redhall were absolutely delighted. to have their work mentioned in this international context because it was a real validation of their work and I have to say it was very difficult for us because it was a real test of our pun abilities once we'd covered bellhops and croakrooms and as many frog related puns as we could.

So I would say environmental volunteering, it's definitely got a visual impact, you know, and you can't deny that. So we obviously take before and after photos, send them to anyone in your community that you think you'd be interested in, that could help you, whether that's press, politicians, local businesses, or your funders. And that's where the recognition will come. 

Fiona: 
That's really good advice for any groups listening in or anyone looking to join a group, Robert, quite soon, and they can bring that insight with them. As Kirstin says, and you've said yourself, nature volunteering, it can have a huge impact on the landscape and species that we at NatureScot are working to protect and restore.

If someone had never volunteered before, how might you, with all your experience and all the people and projects you've been involved with over the years, how might you define the positive impact it can bring to an individual in that sort of mutual reward that we've spoken about for the person and the project?

Robert: 
I think my experience is that people are often surprised at what they get from their volunteering experience because a lot of people go into it thinking that they're giving something and I don't think a lot of people always expect to get something back from that you know and it's people are volunteering for the desire to do something positive, but actually there's a lot of personal benefits.

I mean, you've got the health aspect, being outdoors in all weather, you're carrying out this practical work, so that's a manageable physical exercise that you're getting. You've also got the friendship side because you're tending to work usually in a cross generational group. And that also helps with skill sharing, which goes both ways.

You know, older people might have more experience with particular plants and stuff, whereas young people might have more experience on how to market things through social media. So you've got sets of skills that complement a project overall. And I think what it all adds up to is like a vast improvement in wellbeing and mental health for participants because you feel connected, you feel good about yourself, you feel good about your community, and it's not just a connection to nature.

I think it really, it really does. create a connection to local areas for people. And lots of people have said this, that they have more of a sense of ownership about the community after working on, on Action Earth projects. So, you know, that's, that's a terrific benefit. Other things, you know, there's very unexpected things.

When I was actually at the Shettleston Community Growing Project, somebody said it helped a lot of people with fuel poverty, because a lot of older people were meeting friends who they would then go to friends houses. So it meant that only one person was having the heating on and making cups of tea for five or six people, and then the next week they'd be at another house.

So that's very much an unexpected benefit, you know, for both participants and for the environment, really. 

Kirstin: 
That is so true. You've summed it up nicely. Thanks, Robert. And thank you so much for joining us today. Volunteering is clearly a great way to fight nature loss and climate change, as well as bringing so many benefits to individuals too.
So we're now heading outdoors to a small village in Perthshire to meet with one of Action Earth's inspirational volunteers, Joe Knowles, about what volunteering means to him. 

Fiona: 
Well, Joe, it's lovely to meet you today. We know you're a busy man, so thanks for sparing the time to talk to us. Could you just tell us what you're busy volunteering with this week?
Joe: 
One is very relevant to Action Earth, and that is that, well, probably about seven or eight years ago now, our church applied for an Action Earth grant, and were very successful. And what we did was we created a Noah garden, and we had an ark. And we had the kids in the school paint stones with animals on them.

A pair of each of course. And, and they were arranged as if they were coming out of the ark into this rainbow of flowers that we had. For the last while we, me and another person, have been taking it apart, rebuilding it, and we finally put it back up and incorporated in the ark. The bottom is supposed to be a hedgehog house, but I don't think we've ever had a hedgehog in it.

And, and we have a lady in our congregation who has a hedgehog sanctuary. Up in Crieff and she said, no, you'll never get a hedgehog to live in there. It's a nice big spacious accommodation. You can get a big family of hedgehogs. So having done all the work the one thing that hadn't been put back were the bug hotels.

So I made them. Rather differently because every time the ark fell over all the sticks fell out so I've put them into a mesh now and they're kind of you're going to be stuck in there when it was put all together I realised I didn't have enough sticks so I’ll have to find some of those anyway, that was what I was doing, that's one thing I was doing in the church yesterday.

Fiona: 
You strike me as a very creative and resourceful man. 
Joe: 

Maybe.

Fiona: 
Yes. Could you tell us a little bit about what sort of motivated you in the first place, but also 14 years on, what continues to motivate you to volunteer? 

Joe: 
How did it start? I retired in 2010.
And my wife always said, because I was a bit of an workaholic, what are you going to do? I think she didn't want me underneath her feet all day. I said, don't worry, I'll find things to do. So we were fortunate that I was the director of the company and when I retired I was able to sell some shares and we had some money.

So we bought a flat in Edinburgh. The idea was to go to concerts and, and enjoy the festival and all these kind of things and we did that for a while. But I thought, well, I'm spending two days a week in Edinburgh, I really should try and do something during the day that's not just going looking at museums and things.

So I thought, well, volunteering is a good idea. And that's the very first thing I looked at was, oh, it was CSV at the time, looking for a volunteer. Yeah. And the thing that attracted me was that it was to do with the environment. And the reason for that is that most of my career as an engineer was involved in energy efficiency.
Whether it was improving the energy, or began trying to improve the energy efficiency of some of the equipment on big power stations and nuclear power stations. At the end we were, we were, the company that I worked for laterally for 15 years we were mainly in sustainable and renewable energy. And clearly I wanted to do something, carry on doing something, just try and save the planet. And Action Earth just sounded right. And Robert and I just hit it off right away. So there was no, there was no problem with that. We just said, right, let's just get on with it. 

Fiona: 
So NatureScot provides Action Earth grant funding to help urban communities to respond to the nature climate crisis and these grants support volunteers of all ages, all backgrounds and abilities, outdoors in Scotland's cities or towns, villages.

You'll have witnessed the effect of the Action Earth funding and the projects that it's supported. Could you tell us a little bit about what changes, improvements you have seen come through that grant funding and improvements to nature? 

Joe: 
Yes. Well, we do visit projects as in when we can, but with a hundred and, well, I think our maximum was just under 200 projects and we are now running about 140, 150 a year you can't see them all . But I must admit that anytime I'm going through somewhere new and think, oh, there's a project here, I'll go and have a look and, and we do that. But yes, just, just to see that with a relatively small amount of money. We can make an enormous difference. We're not making the difference, it's the volunteers that are making the difference. Our peak number of volunteers was over 8,000. 

Fiona: 
Wow, that's incredibly impressive. 

Joe:
That's with 50,000 pounds in funding in those days. We're now down to less than that in funding, about two thirds of that. But we still get volunteers. COVID hit badly. But even during the COVID years, we were getting 3,000 and it's crept up now to over 4,000 the last couple of years.
I don't think we'll ever get, unless we get more money, I don't think we'll ever get back to the heady days of eight and a half thousand people. So I think just having all those people and, and what I see is all the statistics, because I create them. I collate them. And I think I've estimated that that the, if you took the volunteering hours, because we ask them how many, how long they spend on the project, if you took all the volunteering hours together in those 14 years, we have done enough, our volunteers have done enough work if it were paid for, it would cost SNH or NatureScot something in the order of 13 million pounds.

Fiona: 
That's value, isn't it? And people are offering their time, Joe, and those working hours when they volunteer, volunteering as a job of work. But what else are people bringing to volunteering? You know, they're bringing their life experience, they're coming to volunteering often on a social level, into communities. Can you talk a little bit for us about the sort of value for people when they sign up for volunteering? 

Joe: 
I think the biggest value is, is just getting together. I know that when I'm involved with groups you know, you've got, you've got to have fun when you're doing it. And, Robert and I have visited many groups over the years.
So, yeah, I think, I think it's, it's just seeing all these people, no doubt, enjoying the volunteering they're doing. 

Fiona: 
There's a sense of camaraderie in it often, isn't it? If you join a group, you're more than the sum of your own parts. 

Joe: 
Robert talks to more than I do. When we were in the office together, it would, we'd often share telephone calls. You rarely, he does ask me to talk to people but it's not the thing I do as an everyday thing just now. But every time I've spoken to anybody they are full of praise for, for, for the action they are taking. And all I can say is long may it continue. 

Fiona: 
Well, it's great to hear of everything that you've offered from, from your own experience and your own skills and to hear about what others offer.

If someone was wanting to get involved with Action Earth and, and volunteer themselves, you know, if they were new to volunteering, what would you encourage them to do or to think to put themselves forward? 

Joe: 
I have a friend whose favourite line when he's asked to do something, or somebody else has asked to do something, he advises them, don't put your head above the parapet.
And I say, do put your head above the parapet. Just get involved. You're going to, you're going to meet things that you've never done before. But it's part of, it's part of life. You're going to learn something. Especially if you've got experienced people who do know, do what they're doing. And, and they'll pull you along. So yeah, never ever say never.

Fiona: 
No. That's sound advice Joe. Just on reflection yourself, how, how would you quantify what, what being involved with volunteer matters and Action Earth has, has brought to you personally?

Joe: 
I suppose you know, Robert and I are good friends now. After 14 years, you can't avoid it. And, of course, I know his partner, and and he knows Sheila. And I, what I miss is that we no longer work from the office in Edinburgh. In fact, I'm not sure there is an office now in Edinburgh. However, you know, working, working from home is the modern thing. So, we both manage to do it quite well. 

Fiona: 
And we're sitting in this beautiful garden in Muthil amongst, you know, the nature of early summer. We've got foxgloves, bumblebees around us, a robin in the trees. This is the Make Space for Nature podcast for NatureScot. And, how do you make space for nature in your own life Joe? 

Joe: 
Well, we just do what we can. I mean, I think we spend a fortune on bird food in the winter and even and, and it's amazing we have a wide variety of birds in that hedge to the right there. The noise sometimes suggests there's at least 2000 sparrows in there. Mainly towards the front of the house, we've got another few dozen tits, blue tits and great tits.

And even we've seen a few crested tits as well. We've got a woodpecker comes here. Yes, we've got quite a variety of birds, so we do that, do something for them. We try and grow a bit of vegetables over there. That's my, that's my job. I'm allowed to do that. 

Fiona: 
And I see in this, this lovely patch in the centre of your garden, you've, you've maybe had a bit of No Mo May inspiration, or you've allowed it to grow wild.

Joe: 
Yeah, I've done that for about four years now, and we'll continue. I'd like to put some more wildflowers in, so we'll get some, some plugs there maybe. 

Fiona: 
And we walked past the church here in Muthil and there's a beautiful community garden there. It's obviously quite a green, a green space, a green village.

Joe: 
Did you notice the blooming shed? We did notice the blooming shed. We have an organisation called Muthil in Bloom and it's partly fundraising, but they've created this blooming shed. And they sell, they, they, They, they put produce in there that people can donate a couple of pounds for. There's books and, and and videos and games that you can exchange or whatever. And, yeah, the garden's quite well maintained. In fact, the village is quite well, well maintained by Muthil in Bloom. 

Fiona: 
Well, thank you so much for your time today, Joe. It's been wonderful hearing of everything you've offered through your volunteering and everything that's possible for others to volunteer for nature.

Joe: 
Okay. Well, may long it continue, and I'll keep going.

 
Kirstin: 
Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying Make Space for Nature, please follow it on your podcast app and leave a reviewer rating. We'd also love you to tell more people about the series. For more ways to connect with and help protect Scotland's natural world, go to Nature.Scot.