My last GiGLer article in April 2022 introduced the start of GiGL’s new volunteering program. Since then, we have welcomed our first cohort of five volunteers in September of 2022. Working on the Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) project, they led the way for all following volunteers and produced some brilliant work as well. They have given constant updates on how the programme as a whole was going, and feedback on any improvements and what they would want in return for their valuable time. You can read more about their amazing achievements in Frankie’s GiGLer article here.
Since our first AWI volunteers joined the programme we have been able to develop the variety of projects we offer, with our species data entry and data maintenance projects kicking off at the start of 2023. We welcomed a further 5 volunteers into these projects who are hard at work on various aspects of GiGL’s species data, from digitising old record cards to manipulating data directly, improving its coverage and quality. We’ve already received an outstanding contribution of over 600 hours of work from our current volunteers, showing the real value that this programme has offered us already. We are looking to build on this success and further expand our purview with projects focusing on sites data (including Open Spaces and Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation) and content development in the pipeline.
We think it’s incredibly important to repay volunteers for their time, whether this is in the form of experience or through training and skills development. With this in mind, we provide all volunteers with a chance to develop and have trained them in a variety of skills, from species data handling to GIS. It’s a great chance for volunteers to learn something new and for us to increase their experience both at GiGL and in their future career.
Going forward GiGL hope to increase the size of the programme and welcome more volunteers onto a wide range of new and exciting projects, as well as bolstering the projects we are currently running. It is also our goal to increase the variety of commitments available. Whether this be a low commitment casual volunteering offer or all the way up to an eventual formal internship programme. Please keep an eye out on the volunteer webpage here for details of upcoming opportunities.