About Make Your Mark
The Make Your Mark campaign aims to increase the number and diversity of heritage volunteers in Scotland.
For heritage organisations, Make Your Mark promotes volunteering opportunities, connects heritage volunteer coordinators nationwide, shares inclusive volunteering practice and evidences volunteering impact to lobby for more funding for heritage volunteering programmes.
For volunteers, Make Your Mark showcases heritage volunteering opportunities and highlights volunteer achievements.
Make Your Mark is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to identify and remove barriers to heritage volunteering in Scotland.
The campaign was created as part of Our Place in Time (2014), Scotland’s first strategy for the historic environment. It is also part of the refreshed strategy for the historic environment Our Past, Our Future (2023).
The campaign is overseen by a working group that is chaired by Volunteer Scotland and includes Historic Environment Scotland (Vice Chair), AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, Glasgow Disability Alliance, Jambo! Radio, Scottish Refugee Council, Museums Galleries Scotland, The National Trust for Scotland, Heritage Trust Network, National Mining Museum Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Royal Society for the Protection Birds, Archaeology Scotland, Scottish Civic Trust, Scottish Council on Archives, NatureScot, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and National Galleries Scotland.
At the heart of Make Your Mark are 3 core values:
Place
Place matters. Each place has a unique mix of history, traditions, folklore and living communities that define the human experience. Stories about place shape who we are and who we are empowered to become. Exploring our physical surroundings (buildings, landscapes, objects, streets, spaces, habitats, wildlife) where we live can also provide us with a sense of rootedness and connection to those we live with and among. Volunteering is a great way for people who live in a place to meet each other and connect to their shared environment and stories.
Community
Communities are instrumental in caring for Scotland’s heritage. Much of our heritage is protected, cherished and celebrated at the local level. Engaging local people with their heritage through volunteering programmes increases the resources, tools and assistance available to preserve, restore and animate our shared history, environment and culture. Communities also benefit from engaging with their heritage – people feel more empowered and connected when encouraged to come together around shared interests.
Heritage
Heritage is anything from the past or present that you value and want to pass on to future generations. This logo represents the heritage sector’s work to create a future for our pasts by contrasting an old building (a castle) with a new technology (a mobile phone). However, historic buildings aren’t the only type of heritage. Heritage is also natural habitats, environments and landscapes; oral history, recipes, dances, dialects and other cultural traditions; archaeological finds; museum, library and archive collections; and commemorations, celebrations and folklore.
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Make Your Mark is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Thanks to National Lottery Players, Make Your Mark supports everyone in Scotland to access heritage volunteering.