I am Stephen Cahill and I wear a few hats for Cranfield Trust. The first and second hat is looking after Scotland and the North East of England. The third hat I wear is volunteering lead for the Trust and with this hat on, I am responsible for driving forward our volunteering strategy. 

My own background was in the commercial sector ranging across many roles and finally ending up in senior IT roles. I have volunteered for the Trust for close on twenty years and, ended up working for it for the last few years and it's a job I absolutely love.

On a day to day basis my role involves me working closely with charities to shape how we can best support them. It would be no exaggeration to say ‘times are tough’ for the sector and hearing this first hand from some of the charities we deal with isn’t exactly easy listening. The impact of funding cuts or the cost of living crisis has an immediate effect on the beneficiaries of these charities, and,  it is quite literally heart-breaking to learn of the impact on them. I also work closely with our amazing volunteers to resource our assignments. This is a real high point of my job. We have brilliant volunteers and they are absolute game-changers for the charities they work with. It never fails to amaze me the skills and dedication that they bring to bear when they are on assignments. Getting the right match between charity and volunteer is in my mind, absolutely crucial and something we do very well in the Trust. Skills, experience and chemistry are ingredients of a successful assignment so that is why we spend a great deal of time getting this right. I have great conversations with our volunteers whilst supporting them on assignments and, as volunteering lead for the Trust, I am very lucky to get to speak to lots of volunteers about other things! This is a real high point of my job.

My passions and what keeps me going

I guess I am fundamentally a people person and bringing together people and purpose is the real reward of my job. Enabling volunteers to feel engaged is something I am passionate about and as volunteering lead, is something we are developing even more. There will be lots of ways that volunteers can connect and get engaged and use their incredible skills and knowledge to help the sector.  It is pretty humbling to see the enthusiasm, expertise and drive of our volunteers and getting them engaged is a top priority for me.   Recently for example, a volunteer asked if there were other volunteers who had worked on projects for a similar charity and literally within ten minutes of me sending them an email asking for help, I had ten replies! Everyone contacted piled in and helped. Great result and the perfect antidote to a grey, rainy morning in Glasgow!  If I had to sum it up in a few words I would say ‘it is like being part of a bigger family’! My colleagues and the volunteers are exactly the sort of people I would ever have wanted to work with!