Volunteer Management & Community Leadership Skills

 This training session was delivered by Luthien Lark from the Highland Third Sector Interface, and Lauren Pyott who offers freelance community leadership support, on 18th March 2024 as part of a bespoke capacity building programme for communities within the Highlands & Islands Climate Change Community-Research Network. This programme was delivered by Science Ceilidh and British Science Association, funded by UK Research and Innovation.

A recording of the training session can be viewed below, along with an accompanying worksheet designed by Science Ceilidh building on the activities included in the original training session.

About the training session

Luthien Lark at the Highland Third Sector Interface, delivered a training session offering practical tips and examples of good volunteer management. She highlighted the importance of opportunities for connection and fostering a sense of belonging and value amongst volunteers, and ways to make volunteering feel fun, flexible, interesting and rewarding. The session also included practical advice on providing volunteer role descriptions, clear inductions and relevant training and regular communication. Ultimately, she encouraged community leaders to involve volunteers in organisational decisions wherever possible and to keep them engaged to ensure long-term sustainability.

Lauren Pyott, founder of social enterprise Clachworks and freelance facilitator in leadership skills, discussed how 6 different leadership styles could be adopted, and adapted, in various contexts to better support those within a community project. These covered a variety of communication styles, with Lauren outlining how different forms of leadership may be more or less appropriate in specific situations or for different groups of people. The training session concluded with a discussion of effective delegation techniques, with an exercise encouraging participants to develop skills in delegating appropriately to ensure manageable workloads for all in a project. 

About the training providers

Luthien Lark joined HTSI in May 2023, she initially started off her career working in mental health services, both rurally and in Aberdeen city. Luthien then went on to study Psychology MA Honours and Person Centered Counselling at the University of Aberdeen graduating in 2010, after which she was involved in developing a successful pilot Employability project to determine the training and support needs of those furthest from the job market in Aberdeen. Luthien has since lectured in Health and Social Care, before returning to Employability, Training & Recruitment in both the funded and commercial sectors. Outwith work, she has a fondness for horses, creative arts, music (she can be known to play guitar and sing on occasion), writes poetry and promotes the importance of a thriving, creative culture in the Highlands.

Website: www.highlandtsi.org.uk

Lauren Pyott is the founder and former Managing Director of Clachworks, a social enterprise in Inverness that runs a tool library and aims to bring social justice to the environmental movement in the Highlands. She has an ILM Certificate in Leadership Skills, has completed several courses on community development, and was awarded Best Social Impact in the UHI Business Awards 2021, through her work with Clachworks. She has previously worked as a Arabic-English translator, editor, researcher, lecturer and organiser of cultural events and festivals across the Middle East and Scotland. She now works as the Network Coordinator for Science Ceilidh, running the Highlands & Islands Climate Change Community Researcher Network, and Community Knowledge Matters: A Highlands & Islands Network for Community-Led Research.