(L-R) Joe Tole, Larissa Karpa, Gayle Kaufmann and Cate Gallows (ACVO)
A massive WELL DONE to Larissa Karpa, who has earned the Saltire Summit Award for outstanding contribution to volunteering. There is a maximum of 12 Summit awards each year in Aberdeen, and each nomination is rigorously assessed by a panel of peers known as Saltire Ambassadors.
Larissa is a Personal Development Mentor currently working with women in Aberdeenshire, but she didn’t start out that way!
Larissa contacted Apex in 2013 when she was still living in Germany, offering to volunteer in between studying at Aberdeen University. She started in the November, helping out when we were really battling with staff shortages.
Larissa’s role was to run personal development training sessions with people coming through the Criminal Justice system on statutory court orders. This client group is extremely difficult to engage and presents with many challenges, but Larissa was more than capable!
Larissa has recently completed her degree in Psychology and she brought a great deal of extra knowledge to Apex that we wouldn’t have had if not for her volunteering with us. However, Larissa doesn’t stop at teaching and mentoring others – she also wholeheartedly embraces the Apex ethos of continuing personal and professional development, and lifelong learning.
Larissa often tells our clients that the route to paid work is via volunteering and that the Third Sector is a great place to work. We feel that she will be an excellent Ambassador for volunteering!