Volunteering Futures
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The last 18 months has seen the world dramatically shift in response to the pandemic. So much has changed. As we all sought to address the immediate challenges of the pandemic, many organisations found ways to continue supporting their local communities and the most vulnerable people within them. Many cultural organisations found their existing community engagement work enhanced in response to need and demand. And as we all sought to adjust, a spotlight shone on the millions of volunteers that play a vital role across our communities and the whole country every year.
Volunteers can provide a warm welcome, skills, different perspectives and a greater connection to our locality. In return ensuring volunteers are appreciated and valued can be mutually beneficial and impactful.
That’s why today we are launching Volunteering Futures, funded by DCMS - a ring-fenced, time-limited fund, making £4.7 million available through National Lottery Project Grants. Organisations will be able to apply for over £100,000 to support high quality volunteering opportunities for young people and those that experience barriers to getting involved in volunteering across arts, heritage, museums, libraries, sport and other community settings.
As we set out in our strategy for 2020-2030, Let’s Create, we believe that villages, towns and cities thrive through a collaborative approach to culture. But there needs to be a shared commitment to removing the geographic, economic and social barriers that currently prevent many people from taking part.
Whilst our cultural and heritage infrastructure can often provide a welcoming safe space for people to come together, there are some in the community that will experience a barrier to attending. Violet Dickensoni, born in Zimbabwe, shared her experience of volunteering with other asylum-seeking women in Sheffield.
It’s good for the women to go and be involved in some of these places as they can interact with different people. It helps them mental health wise because there are certain things they can do that relate to their culture. It also alleviates them being lonely.
Volunteering Futures aims to help overcome barriers and unlock experiences like Violet’s by encouraging cross-sector collaboration and working closely with other community partners and stakeholders to encourage innovation, using culture and creativity as a momentum for volunteering and new types of practice to be explored.
A great example of this in practice is Pea Green Boat, a project co-ordinated by Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) in partnership with the local Community Foundation. Inspired by the Multaka initiative, a successful cultural volunteering project for refugees in Berlin, they’re working with local organisations who support refugees and asylum seekers to introduce people to culturally diverse museum collections. The refugees and asylum seekers have gone on to join their volunteering programme and supported the development of public tours in a number of languages focusing on particular points of interest within the collections.
The benefits of volunteering on health and wellbeing are also well documented. It can particularly help overcome loneliness and social isolation, providing individuals with a chance to get together with others in their community, helping them to feel part of wider society. Like the knitting, stitching and crocheting craft club led by volunteer crafters which takes place weekly in the Millennium Gallery café in Sheffield.
Through the fund, we want to support organisations to come together, or build on existing place-based partnership working across their communities or sectors to develop and deliver high quality volunteering opportunities. The value of volunteers can’t be overstated - volunteer-led Bailiffgate Museum in Northumberland recently won a national award for being family friendly and, speaking to a trustee recently, they put this down to the dedication and skills of the volunteers involved.
We recognise that volunteering isn’t a substitute for paid work although volunteering can help individuals to learn new skills often providing a route to gaining experience and opening up opportunities for employment. As part of Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) youth development programme, I applied to volunteer on a women’s’ empowerment project in India for a year aged 21. The experience definitely shaped who I am today and gave me the confidence and skills to pursue a career I enjoy. Zuzanna Jankowska’s love of reading and desire to help her community inspired her to volunteer at her local library in Torrington, Devon whilst still at school. Three years on Zuzanna says “volunteering has helped me gain many skills that will be useful to me in the future when I’m applying for a job or to go to university. My communication skills have definitely improved as well as my time-management and self-confidence”
Volunteering has a vital role to play in helping the country to rebuild as we begin to move beyond this crisis. Communities will need to work together. We hope to support a range of projects through Volunteering Futures. Projects which extend or scale up existing good practice, those which increase the number of quality volunteering opportunities for young people and individuals that face barriers to getting involved. Projects which support innovation in volunteering practice or support partnerships to extend deeper into local communities or national networks to build greater links. We expect these projects collectively to be nationally significant and have a lasting legacy, contributing towards supporting individuals health and wellbeing, rebuilding local economies, and bringing isolated people back together.
Volunteering Futures is funded by DCMS and opens for expressions of interest on Monday 22 November 2021.
