Volunteer’s farewell

Well, today is officially my last day at the Scottish Child Law Centre. I must admit, when I started back in June, I was quite nervous since I hadn’t worked previously in a legal environment. However, everyone here was extremely friendly and welcoming. It was great working with the solicitors while picking up useful trainee tips and meeting volunteers from all over Europe and learning about their legal systems. Though I will be moving south next week, the Scottish Child Law Centre will be a highlight of my time in Edinburgh and has been the highlight of my week every time I come in. The only thing I regret is not finding it until after I graduated as I would have liked to volunteer throughout university as opposed to just at the end.

When I was younger, my family was heavily involved in volunteering, so I grew up working for charities or Churches. This was the first time that I really thought about where I wanted to volunteer before applying. It was really rewarding to combine my passion for law with that of helping people.

For anyone in Edinburgh with a couple spare hours a week, I would highly recommend volunteering at the Scottish Child Law Centre.

10 September 2014

Volunteer’s view

Hello, my name is Max, and I am a recent graduate of Japanese from the University of Edinburgh. Last year I wrote my dissertation about constitutional law in Japan. Currently, I am looking forward to starting the GDL in September. But in the meantime, I wanted to get some practical legal experience before embarking on my chosen profession. Since I was working in Edinburgh over the summer, my dissertation supervisor recommended I research places to volunteer in my spare time.

And so began my time volunteering for the Scottish Child Law Centre once a week. Over the last couple months, I have met some great people, volunteers from all over Europe, and gained more practical knowledge than I was originally expecting.

I was pushed into the forefront in my second week as I was the only volunteer at the Centre for a number of weeks (at least on Mondays). However, a couple weeks ago, two more volunteers joined me, and today there are six people in the Centre’s library –the most I’ve seen yet!

Over the last couple of months, I have been involved in various projects. At one point, I even used my Japanese knowledge to translate a leaflet. I did not realise how many little pieces of knowledge I had picked up until I started an introductory online law course for my university. My main points of knowledge came from a database I have been helping update. I have learned what various terms in child and family law mean, and I have gained the experience necessary to research legal material online and from the library.

I’m only here for another few weeks, but there are still many things which I am looking forward to, including but not limited to meeting Ben Adler who has been cycling from Devon to aid SCLC.

All-in-all volunteering at the SCLC has been an even better experience than I was anticipating. The SCLC was a great, rewarding, and interesting way to spend my extra time this summer.

18 August 2014