News, Volunteer Stories
Volunteer Stories: Meet Calum
Volunteer Stories – meet Calum
‘Coming to GCP really takes me out of my university work. I can come here and do something that I really feel makes a positive difference and I learn a lot too. There are some really skilled musicians at the Grassmarket’.
Calum (Pictured centre) is an excellent example of a talented and enthusiastic University of Edinburgh student who has fallen in love with GCP. In the third year of his undergraduate degree in Music and Community, he had a one-year placement with us. At that time he taught beginners guitar, supporting Tomas, who ran the Guitar Group. When Tomas left, Calum continued to volunteer beyond the end of his placement and felt confident enough to lead the group. He hasn’t looked back since: ‘I did some restructuring in the group and also encouraged songwriting as well as playing. This has led to a number of performances notably our successful Coffee House gig in March.’ (https://grassmarket.org/coffee-house-gig/ ).
Calum enjoys the community at GCP. ‘It’s a really great place where people come and meet others and through activities get a sense of achievement and through skill-building, they improve their quality of life.’
When Calum finishes his Masters in Musicology, he hopes to travel for a year, stopping off in Vienna to learn German and hone his guitar skills. Until then, he has ambitious plans for the Guitar Group, including more live performances and hopefully recording an album. ‘It is always fun playing music so any excuse and I will be there supporting GCP’.
There definitely seems to be a pattern with our student volunteers. They come on a student placement as part of their course, fall in love with the Grassmarket and stay on volunteering afterwards. You can read more student stories from Megan and Hailey here: https://grassmarket.org/volunteer-stories-meet-hailey/, https://grassmarket.org/volunteer-stories-megan/.
A big thank you to Calum from everyone at GCP!
We couldn’t run the Grassmarket without our fabulous volunteers. Every single one brings their own skills and talents along and we try and match volunteer interests to our community needs. Everyone makes such a difference!
Become a Volunteer
We would not be able to deliver GCP’s amazing support and services to vulnerable people and social enterprise customers without our fantastic volunteers.
There are lots of opportunities for individuals to participate and join in! Everyone is welcome.
The volunteer commitment varies depending on the role, but can be as little as two hours a month. All volunteers receive ongoing support and have access to free training.
A BIG THANK YOU
The Grassmarket Community Project relies on the time and commitment of our volunteers. The Volunteer Programme is possible thanks to the generosity of our customers, funders and donors. Our main funder for this area of our work is The Big Lottery Changing Lives programme and we thank them for their essential continued support.