Elected politicians tend to work towards short term, showy projects and longer term, less obvious projects are thus forgotten. If local people want to work towards long term goals and to give attention to detail then they have to take matters into their own hands. Voluntary involvement in community-led organisations is a readily available vehicle for this. Many people get involved in the voluntary sector for reasons which are not so practical as those mentioned above. This improves the quality of your personal life and of community life as a whole.
People come to care about each other more.
The Voluntary and the Community-led Sectors Over 26,000 Scottish charities are recognised by the Inland Revenue. Between them they have an income of over 2 billion pounds each year and employ over 51,000 people 2 . These voluntary organisations can be divided into those which serve a community of interest and those that serve a community of location . The first group tends to be national in scope and the organisations tend to have their offices in the big cities. The second group tends to have a local focus and the organisations have their base in the areas which they directly serve.