Staff volunteering day: A Day to Make a Difference

Tammy Gilchrist, Research Technician at the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility, shares how she used her Day to Make a Difference to supplement ongoing volunteering for the benefit of nature and communities.
Scottish Wildlife Trust training: Nextdoor Nature
At the end of June 2024, I used my volunteering day – ‘Day to Make a Difference’ – for the first time. I used it on a day of voluntary training.
Earlier this year, my application to join the final cohort of the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Nextdoor Nature Pioneers Programme was accepted.
This six-month course consists of online learning, webinars and in-person events to provide volunteers with the resources, skills and confidence to develop their own community projects that benefit nature and also the wellbeing of the local communities.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust firmly believe that community-led conservation is the best way to achieve Scotland-wide recovery of nature and biodiversity.
Nextdoor Nature Pioneers Programme video
During my volunteering day, I was interviewed for this video on the programme. Hear from me three minutes in.
5 minutes, 17 seconds long video by the Scottish Wildlife Trust on Nextdoor Nature, featuring an overview of the programme, and interviews with the pioneers.
My advice if you are trying to set up a nature community project is to try and find as many like-minded people as possible and talk to as many people in your community as you can. You really need it to benefit local people because then they’ll get behind it.
Building on past volunteering
I volunteer with my local community garden. The garden has thrived in the last year and a half due to the dedication of an enthusiastic and determined group of volunteers. This inspired me to further improve nature and biodiversity in my community.
The main driving force for enrolling on the Nextdoor Nature course was to help create a nature-friendly outdoor space for the local Scout group, where I am a volunteer leader with the Cubs.
I hope this course will help me further develop the unusable brownfield space around the Scout Hall.
This could be an amazing green space for our young people to:
- get back to nature
- have adventures
- develop new skills
- work on badgework
- and improve their wellbeing.
Trips with Nextdoor Nature
Jock Tamson’s Gairden
The first in-person events included a tour of the amazing community garden, Jock Tamson’s Gairden on the banks of Duddingston Loch where they have actively created a welcoming space for all.
Newbattle Abbey College
The next was a foraging walk at Newbattle Abbey College with Szymon from Foragerium. Szymon has a passion for engaging people to reconnect with nature and to share knowledge that we have lost to be more self-sufficient.
We also discussed citizen science and its importance for nature conservation. Buglife, part of the Riverfly partnership, showed us a river sampling technique which is used to monitor water quality of rivers, including the river Esk.
Citizen scientists identify invertebrates and discover how healthy a river likely is, depending on what they find.
East Lothian Community Hospital
The third in-person event was on one of my working days, so I discussed with my lab manager if I could use my volunteering day to be able to attend this event. My manager agreed, encouraging me to write a blog post about my experiences.
My volunteering day started at East Lothian Community Hospital with a tour from Iain (the Arts and Greenspaces Manager for NHS Lothian Charity).
The NHS, like many other institutions, now understand the numerous benefits of nature for improving recovery from illness and supporting mental health.
The Green Health team are working hard to improve the hospital’s green spaces. These were built into the design of the hospital as it is a fairly new building, however, at the moment they are mostly monocultures or were not designed with specific patient groups in mind.
Green Health will address this so that suitable outdoor areas are available for dementia, mental health and end-of-life wards, which all have very different requirements.
Iain showed us where Sustrans will be extending the cycle path so that it will connect to the hospital and link directly to the Edinburgh cycle route.
There was also the familiar discussion of the constant battle to stop maintenance teams from completely mowing all the grass and to leave wild borders.
Iain discussed the plans they have to start a community garden in front of the hospital and the challenges to be overcome, including encouraging staff to take their allocated breaks and get outside to benefit from these green spaces.
Being based at the Western General Hospital myself, this was a great opportunity to find ways we could improve green spaces.
We also looked inside the hospital at some of the courtyard spaces and the nature art, which has also been shown in scientific studies to improve patient recovery and well-being.
Pathways to green prescribing in Midlothian
MADE in East Lothian
Our next stop was to visit MADE in East Lothian. This is a community enterprise which took over a disused building and turned it into a re-use hub.
Local artists have works for sale, and they also take craft donations, sort them and sell them for a small fee to help recover costs. They run workshops on reusing and creating artwork with natural materials.
We had an opportunity to be crafty ourselves using sea glass, shells and donated materials to create sea-themed artwork. Crafting sessions are also a great way to encourage public involvement in community projects.
Blooming Haddington
Our final part of the day was to have a walking tour with Claire from Blooming Haddington which is a group set up by volunteers to improve the look of the village and increase biodiversity in the area.
With numerous planters and hanging baskets and public gardens around Haddington, it is easy to see what a difference this group of dedicated volunteers has made to the community.
They work closely with the East Lothian council, community council and local businesses to improve wellbeing and benefit the environment.
Reflections on my Day to Make a Difference
Having my Day to Make a Difference opened the opportunity for me to attend a weekday session I might not have otherwise gone to.
It was great to be able to use a working day to enhance my volunteering skills. Especially as I work part-time and don’t always feel comfortable asking for time to go on courses that are not directly related to my work. This day was really valuable to me.
For me, the best thing about the course was knowing that lots of other people are trying to achieve the same sorts of things very close to me.
Each of the trips gave us the opportunity to find out in more detail how to develop community projects in our own areas.
How I’m putting what I learned into action
For my project, I have had some difficulties accessing the scout area that I hope to help transform, so instead, in the short term we have made a start improving the driveway of the Scout Hall with some planters funded by the course.
We have received some lavender, wildflower seeds, bulbs and some bug hotels to make a start while we sort out access and get the area safe for the young people to use.
At work, I am co-chair of the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility Sustainability Committee and towards the end of my course, we started discussing the idea of improving a neglected area outside our workplace at the Western.
We would like to make this a space for our staff to go and enjoy nature to improve wellbeing and encourage more wildlife to the area. The information I gained in my course is all directly relevant to this idea as well. I’m looking forward to using my skills at work, as well as at home.
I enjoyed meeting like-minded individuals through Nextdoor Nature. Their wide range of experience and expertise is making a real difference in their communities. I’m inspired to keep making a difference in mine.

Scout Hut planters and bug hotel
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