CHARITY leaders in the Wee County are being invited to a conference next month following the launch of a plan to boost volunteering in the area.

Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface (CTSI) will be holding its Voluntary Leadership Conference at Inglewood House & Spa on April 24 to help good causes, many of which are still feeling the impact of the pandemic.

It comes following the launch of CTSI's three-year strategy, Volunteering Approach to a Wellbeing Economy, which seeks to support the vital work of charities in the area.

The pandemic continues to have a significant impact on good causes, including a drop in formal volunteering across Scotland, with the trend reflected in Clackmannanshire as CTSI heard from its member organisations.

Indeed, local surveying showed that a quarter of people are involved in formal volunteering, a drop from 33 per cent before Covid 19.

However, there are positive signs the downward trend can be reversed.

Anthea Coulter, chief officer at CTSI, said: “In 2016 Clackmannanshire was sitting on 25 per cent for formal volunteering but then it was within the bottom ten local authorities.

“Now, the same figure has Clacks sitting in the top ten local authorities for volunteering, so the drop has not been as bad as expected.

“The same report showed community and environmental volunteering roles are on the increase and these are popular areas now in Clackmannanshire – local volunteering roles near to people’s homes where they don’t have to spend money travelling for example.

“Youth volunteering has also been hit really hard but already, we are seeing the numbers of hours and registrations on the increase so we hope that will have a strong reversal to the trend in the next year.”

The Volunteering Approach to a Wellbeing Economy strategy launched this year has four strands of work to encourage people into volunteering, support trustees and volunteer leaders, for community wealth building and to improve people's wellbeing.

Anthea added: “Volunteering and voluntary leadership are critical for the success of the majority of our third sector organisations and CTSI must help groups attract in former and new volunteers and ensure that includes trustees to help operate our local charities, community groups and social enterprises.

“We will be launching a wide range of new products and services for the sector including a new volunteer management system that can help support volunteer involving organisations; a new TSI Scotland Network online training platform to share relevant and vital training; and a dedicated Voluntary Leadership Conference in April to be held at Inglewood Hotel which launched last week and is aimed at third sector leaders and trustees working in Clackmannanshire.”

Each year, CTSI celebrates the enormous impact volunteers have on their communities with an annual awards during Volunteers' Week in June with nominations open until the end of the month, as recently reported.

To nominate volunteers or to register for the conference, visit ctsi.org.uk.