STIRLING CULTURAL STRATEGY CATALYST
Volunteering
powering a thriving cultural community across Stirling
What is this?
Volunteering is one of the six catalysts at the heart of the Stirling Cultural Strategy 2023–2028. Volunteering is already a huge part of Stirling's civic life — in health, social care, sport, and heritage. But there is a less visible level of volunteer activity in the cultural sector, and a disconnect between the level of interest from potential volunteers and their awareness of opportunities to get involved.
This catalyst is about closing that gap — making it easier for people who want to volunteer in arts and culture to find opportunities, and for cultural organisations and events to access the voluntary support they need to thrive.
Our vision
A thriving community of cultural volunteers across Stirling — where people of all backgrounds can contribute their skills, energy and creativity to the cultural life of their area, and where arts and cultural organisations grow their reach, ambition and impact through the power of volunteering.
Get involved
Are you interested in volunteering with a cultural organisation or event in Stirling? Or are you a cultural organisation looking to engage volunteers? We'd love to hear from you — and can connect you with opportunities through the SVE Volunteering Portal. Get in touch →
Updates
Scene Stirling is a named sponsor of the Arts award strand at the SVE Inspire Volunteering Awards 2026 — recognising the contribution of volunteers to arts and cultural life across the Stirling area.
The baseline sector survey launching in 2026 will give us our first detailed picture of volunteering activity across Stirling's cultural sector. Watch this space for further updates.
Updates
This page will be updated with news, case studies, and data from our annual sector survey. Check back for progress updates.
Why this matters in Stirling
Stirling is home to the headquarters of Volunteer Scotland, the national development body for volunteering, making it a natural centre of expertise and ambition for volunteering across all sectors. Volunteering is deeply embedded in the city's identity. The cultural sector has a significant opportunity to draw on this — but needs better visibility and connection to make it happen. Major events, community arts projects, and cultural organisations across Stirling all have the potential to be enriched by volunteer involvement, creating routes into cultural life for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Volunteering in culture is also about more than operational support — it builds skills, reduces isolation, connects communities, and gives people agency in shaping the cultural life of where they live.
The University of Stirling is a significant and largely untapped source of volunteer potential — with thousands of students actively seeking community involvement to build skills, gain experience, and connect with life in Stirling beyond the campus.
What are we working towards?
The strategy envisions an active, connected volunteering community across Stirling's cultural sector — one where volunteers and organisations can find each other easily, where training and support help volunteers develop, and where cultural events and projects that wouldn't otherwise happen are made possible through voluntary effort.
The SVE Volunteering Portal and the University of Stirling's Students' Union Volunteering Hub both provide existing infrastructure for this. Cultural organisations can register on both platforms to reach volunteers across the area and the student community. The baseline sector survey will help us understand the current scale of cultural volunteering and where the gaps are.
Key partners
Stirlingshire Voluntary Enterprise (SVE) is the central partner for this catalyst, providing the volunteering portal and infrastructure. The University of Stirling — through both its Students' Union Volunteering Hub and its University Collections volunteer programme — is a key source of engaged volunteers with skills relevant to arts and culture. Other partners include cultural organisations and events across the area and Stirling Council.