Volunteer: Kirsty Brown

Age: 17

From: Edinburgh

Placement: Volunteer Development Assistant, Dunedin Canmore Housing Association

“Since volunteering with ProjectScotland I have definitely developed a ‘go gettem’ attitude to life.  I’ve seen that there are so many things out there that I would like to do.  The only trouble now is picking what I want to do first!”

Kirsty became a ProjectScotland volunteer in December 2008. She had left school at 16 and after a few “false starts” in a couple of jobs and a college course in Business Administration, she was unemployed for about 6 months.

Towards the end of 2008 Kirsty received a letter from Dunedin Canmore Housing Association about their new partnership with ProjectScotland.  Kirsty thought she’d give it a go – it looked like a good way to gain life skills and experience with the added advantage of a subsistence allowance and travel costs.

Kirsty was placed as a Volunteer Development Assistant at Dunedin Canmore Housing Association.  This involved learning a huge range of new skills.  Her proudest achievement on her placement was working on the Trained Up project.  This community based IT project invited residents to attend IT taster sessions.  Kirsty’s contribution to this project was huge.  She helped to shape the content and structure of the taster sessions and even worked on the publicity for the launch in early February 2009.  Kirsty is now assisting in marketing the project.  She has a flair for designing and writing fliers and has even helped to put together press releases.

One of Kirsty’s biggest challenges was overcoming her shyness to help cover phones in reception.  Once she was shown how to work the switchboard Kirsty was great at handling calls.  She developed a bright and cheerful telephone manner and had no problem connecting callers.

While she was on placement, the team at West Edinburgh Action helped Kirsty to apply for ILA funding to do an Introduction to Psychology open learning course.  She hopes that this will be a stepping stone to doing Higher Psychology at Stevenson College in Autumn ’09 and then on to University to do a degree. 

Another possible career that Kirsty is keen on is the Fire Service.  She has recently joined the gym and is getting fit so that if she does decide that she wants to apply she is in good physical condition.

Before completing her ProjectScotland placement, Kirsty found it easier to quit rather than face her problems.  Through her placement she has overcome her shyness, learnt new skills and she now sees herself in a positive light. With the help of ProjectScotland Kirsty is really optimistic about her future. 

“ProjectScotland has really helped to change my life.  Before I was so caught up in what people would think of me that I sort of froze and didn’t do anything.  Now I don’t care what they think and I feel like I can do anything with my life.”