WITH just two weeks to Christmas, there is little time with presents to buy, decorations to put up, and festive nights out, to think much about the year ahead and those annual New Year resolutions on the horizon.

But when the last cracker has been pulled and the chocolate pile gobbled up, I hope you will take a few minutes before 2020, and a new decade begins to think what your voluntary contribution could be to help your place and community.

In a world that is changing rapidly around us and sometimes it feels, we have no control on – with an election looming tomorrow and a well-reported climate challenge emergency – it can also be overwhelming.

But it is also a time of huge hope and fresh opportunities for everyone to play a part in shaping your communities and perhaps for some, take the first small steps together to make changes that can help us all.

In Clackmannanshire, in the last year, many communities and volunteers have taken incredible steps to establish new legal entities – development trusts and local action groups, to start running the five former council CAPs.

They are already vibrant places running lunch clubs for older people, welfare drop-ins, after-school and holiday clubs for children, computer classes, community libraries, heritage days and so much more. I encourage you, if you have not already, to get involved and make a difference in your community through these anchor organisations.

Firstly, sign up as a member of your local development trust (it also really helps with funding to show local people are interested), think about whether you have a skill that could be used, or could you run a small fundraiser, could your employer even help in some way.

Could you volunteer even just a few hours in the year ahead to help shape and improve your community?

Across Scotland, especially rural communities, this has been the reality for a long time, with little statutory support provided in some remote areas.

Now many of those communities are not only running their own community spaces, but also co-operative shops, pubs, energy farms, even building their own schools, operating hotels, community transport and care homes with the aim of building stronger, more resilient communities, often creating new jobs and ensuring sustainable services.

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act is legislation that is designed to help communities of place and communities of interest, especially through what is referred to as "participation requests" where groups of people can ask to "start a conversation" with local statutory authorities, to design the services they believe are needed in their communities.

Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface (CTSI) will be bringing experts to the wee county early next year to help explain how this can work in practice.

In the last Scottish Household Survey, Clackmannanshire showed a huge increase in adult volunteering up 7 per cent to 32 per cent of residents and in addition more young people than ever before are working towards their Saltire Awards.

CTSI wants to help even more people to participate in volunteering so in January 2020, CTSI will be launching its new 'Faces of Volunteering' campaign , with a dedicated Facebook page @VolunteeringClackmannanshire promoting new volunteering opportunities as they come online with easy-to-view icons covering volunteering areas like environment, retail, office and trustee roles, to make it quick and easy to find the right volunteering role for you, which fits around your time and life.

We are also really keen to help local businesses promote volunteering to staff, so look out for our promotional campaign and materials later in 2020.

If you need any information on how to get more involved in volunteering or find out about local organisations seeking volunteers in your area, take a minute to look at the CTSI website www.ctsi.org.uk , follow us on Facebook @CTSIalloa , via Tiwtter @clacksCTSI or give us a ring on 01259 213840. In the meantime, we hope you have a wonderful, happy festive period and look forward to hearing from you soon in 2020!