How we work with communities

Volunteers
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) is supported by more than 500 volunteers working across Scotland. Throughout the year, volunteers help the SNBTS carry out valuable work to help support Scotland's health. They perform such roles as publicising and assisting with the organisation of donor sessions and keeping the tea flowing for our donors. Find out more about volunteering.

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Association (SNBTA)
Every blood donor and volunteer helper in Scotland is automatically a member of the SNBTA. The SNBTA's main aim is to represent and protect donor interests and promote the voluntary unpaid nature of donation. It does this by providing an independent channel through which donors can express their views and also funds the annual donor award ceremonies. Get involved with the SNBTA.

Lay committee members
We have a number of committees which rely on the participation of volunteer lay representatives. The role of the representative is to get to know SNBTS to enable them to be in a position to consider, challenge and comment, from a lay point of view, proposals being considered by us. This ensures that we have a user perspective to professional discussions.

National school talk programme
In order to raise awareness about the vital role that blood donors play in society, SNBTS operates a national school talk programme. Our recruitment team work with schools throughout the country to coordinate talks with the senior pupils.
By providing an interesting and encouraging insight into how every individual can contribute towards their community, we are able to motivate and recruit new blood donors. During the 2010-11 school year an outstanding 6555 new 17 and 18-year-olds gave blood for the first time following a talk.