Get involved with Garden Club
In 2021 Hospitalfield’s Walled Garden, designed by the horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett, opened to the public. The scheme was developed to reveal the unique horticultural history of the site at Hospitalfield, which has been tended as a garden for over 800 years.
The garden and grounds at Hospitalfield are maintained, made fruitful and more beautiful with the fantastic support of our volunteers who meet regularly at Garden Club. Garden Club support the development of the garden from helping weed the gardens, sowing seeds, potting up plants and assisting with seasonal projects. Our next garden project is the development of the medicinal garden.
The site at Hospitalfield has been populated since the 13th century when the monks who ran Arbroath Abbey established their hotel or hospital, here where we believe that they must have grown a medicinal garden and brewed potions as medicines to improve the health and wellbeing of those who they cared for.
From January 2023 we are inviting a medicinal plant specialist to design the garden with Garden Club volunteers, Hospitalfield’s grounds keeping team and soon to be appointed Community Gardener. The new medicinal garden will be planted in a large area within the walled garden at Hospitalfield. As part of our upcoming Garden Club sessions we’ll be planning, preparing, and planting this new medicinal garden.
Garden Club Volunteers meet regularly from 10am to 12pm on Fridays at Hospitalfield. We’re looking for volunteers to come along and get involved in the new medicinal garden at Hospitalfield.
For full information on how to get involved and accessibility notes please see our website https://hospitalfield.org.uk/support/volunteer/garden-club/ or contact us at volunteer@hospitalfield.org.uk
Minimum age: 18
Hillfoots Tales became a Community Interest Company in 2021. They aim to connect people and places to promote well-being through the magic of storytelling. The group provide storytelling events (fortnightly), women's workshops for well-being and are part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival of 2022.
There are various opportunities including:
- Typing
- Photography
- Social Media
- Collating evaluations
- Report/funding application writing
- Storytelling
They are looking for someone who is keen to learn, enthusiastic and willing to interact with other people. Preferably experience in one of the areas listed above will be an advantage.
Hospitalfield is seeking new Governors at this pivotal time of development and change.
Our current Governors are a small, dedicated group of very experienced individuals who have worked with the staff team to get phase 2 of the Future Plan on site. The work has now started with a twelve-month building programme. As we move into a new chapter and plan for the use of the new and restored buildings, we wish to expand the numbers and range of skills on our Board. Join the Trust as a Governor and support our plan for the new studios and work with us to support the development of future capital phases.
• We are particularly interested in applications from local people who are embedded within our Angus community.
• We would very much welcome applications from artists based nationally.
• We always need support around finance, development and fundraising.
We aim to make our board more representative of the artists and audiences that we support while also ensuring that we have the right expertise.
We welcome applications from those who have not served on Boards before but feel they have a good deal to contribute to this next phase in the long life of the Trust.
Hospitalfield’s Governors provide an exceptionally important role in offering their time voluntarily in supporting the staff team at Hospitalfield. This is a large organisation with a very small team and the Governors play a significant role in bringing their skills, knowledge, contacts, and ideas to support the leadership that the staff team provide.
Event Assistant
- To support The Fraser Centre Community Trust in the delivery of our film programme in our new 108c cinema in Tranent.
- To provide assistance at the event under the supervision of our management team including: welcome the public to the Cinema; assist with ticketing; catering; front of house; prior, during and after the film.
- To help ensure the venue is welcoming and safe for all users.
- To share our love of the community, and love of films.
The aim of this project is to improve the experiences of families and carers, following the bereavement of a loved one in Hospital, with all in-patient areas using dignified and respectful bags/boxes to return patients valuables and belongings to families and carers.
Normal practice within the NHS is to return belongings following the death of a patient in plastic patient belongings bags; this includes very personal belongings such as watches, jewellery, cards, and photographs. The items are returned in a plastic bag which is universally used as a bag to store and return patients clothes. This has been seen for a long time as a practice which is impersonal and lacks respect and shows no recognition that the person has been bereaved. Recent feedback from staff and reflection from a student nurse on placement echoed the thoughts of how impersonal this felt and did not express the empathy the staff felt for families and carers.
Patterns, material and thread provided
A childrens charity for children with a parent serving or ex service personnel in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines Reserves or Royal Fleet Auxilliary. Many children experience long time separation from their parent(s). The charity has developed story books which helps younger children understand and manage their emotions. The book is sent to children along side 2 knitted rabbits/penguin with faces on their tummies smile/frown to help them express how they are feeling. Patterns available.
Volunteers play a vital role within GCBN. We currently have over 40 fully-trained volunteer responders working across Grampian to support bereaved children and their families.
If you live within Highland, are over the age of 18 and eligible to join the PVG Scheme and would like to help a bereaved child as they come to terms with the loss of a loved one then we’d love to hear from you!
Take a look at the role descriptions below to see which of the two options are most appropriate to your interests and skills and if you feel you would could join our team, then please get in touch!
Volunteer Responders: Our trained volunteers receive referrals and visit families within their own homes to provide appropriate support and guidance to the families this can include direct work with the young person/s involved.
Our role is to keep the Centre running as a non-profit to provide meeting spaces for outreach work by local organisations. At present, the small Committee is made up of the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and members from Cathedral Session and congregational/non-congregational members.
The Secretary keeps the Committee updated by email on agendas, forthcoming meetings, takes notes at meetings and distributes them afterwards.
The role also involves being the lead for a team which compiles a rota of volunteers to staff the Centre from April to September each year. This is done by group email to our existing volunteers and hard copy to those not on email asking them to record their availability for the upcoming season. A simple spreadsheet is used to record this work. The team then use the information to compile the rota.
Once a year, at the end of the visitor season, the Secretary writes to all volunteers to invite them to a thank-you tea/coffee and light refreshments afternoon.
A volunteer Secretary will be able to use and develop their skills in using email, word processing and maintaining a database of volunteers. In addition, the Secretary plays a key role in supporting the Chair and being part of a small and committed team. It is a role which is greatly appreciated.
St Mary's Preservation Trust preserves and cares for a unique and significant old church in Burwick in South Ronaldsay. The church was a community meeting point for hundreds of years and there are lots of good memory’s associated with it. The Trust want this to continue by holding public events (the bonfire, storytelling) and maintaining the building so it survives for future generations. The group is light hearted and easy going. We meet around 4 times a year and have 3 to 4 events for the public each year. You will get to be involved in a historic place with lots of interesting things happening and be part of a friendly group of people.
The post of secretary is pretty light touch. The main thing we require is someone to help with the collection of minutes, writing them up and sending them out to the group. Later on, this role can expand to a full secretary position if so desired. This would be organising meetings and chasing up on tasks. So if you’ve never been on a board before this would be a great first role.