Kate Parry MBE
As the Helping Hands project comes to a close, Kate Parry MBE from Cumbria Museum Consortium reflects on project learning and what it means for the wider culture sector.
The Cumbria-wide partnership programme involving over thirty museums, theatres, arts centres, historic houses and heritage sites, ran from Summer 2022 to Spring 2024, and was made possible by a £490,000 grant from Arts Council England through the Volunteering Futures Fund.
The programme aimed to break down barriers to volunteering across this large, complex, rural county, at the same time contributing to improved community wellbeing and increased workforce diversity.
A dedicated group of eight people, comprising Inclusive Volunteering Leads based in cultural venues across the county, along with communications and evaluation specialists, supplemented the Cumbria Museum Consortium team. Community partners organisations, such as Cumbria Deaf Association and Anti Racist Cumbria, provided specialist guidance and training.
Lesson One: Personal relationships and face to face contact are vital
‘Problem solving happens in face-to face-conversations’ – Inclusive Volunteering Lead
Helping Hands set out to disrupt the traditional model of volunteering in cultural organisations in Cumbria, shifting from a ‘role first’ model in which volunteers were generally placed in pre-set volunteering roles based on organisational need, to a ‘people first’ model in which prospective volunteers’ skills, aspirations and needs were the starting point for considering where they could be placed and what they could do.
Personal relationship building was at the heart of this new approach. Successful placements happened when the Inclusive Volunteering Leads had met potential volunteers and understood their skillsets, interests and hopes for volunteering and could match these with placements based on an understanding of the cultural organisations’ volunteer roles and needs, and ability to be flexible. In many cases this resulted in the creation of bespoke placements, for example a volunteer who wanted to get more experience in photography being placed in Barrow’s Dock Museum to photograph their collections. In other cases, meetings between volunteers and partner organisations, facilitated by Inclusive Volunteering Leads, enabled barriers to be addressed and solutions found to enable volunteering placements to happen. The tweaks needed were often simple, such as changing start times to allow for public transport or providing suitable clothing.
Lesson Two: Barriers to inclusive volunteering often sit within host organisations, and not with the volunteer.
‘There’s a common thread about why it doesn’t work, which relates to…people not seeing the bigger picture about volunteering’ – IVL
Helping Hands was created in response to a set of widely acknowledged barriers that prevent people from volunteering in Cumbria. Those include poor transport links, lack of familiarity with cultural settings and limited awareness of opportunities. These factors were very much in evidence, however as the project progressed it became clear that often, significant barriers also existed within the cultural organisations.
Typically, organisations had developed their volunteering systems around a set of assumptions. These included the belief that volunteers would be able to drive, access a computer and bank account, write and speak English well, access suitable clothing and have the confidence to navigate induction processes. Of course, many people are not in this position (and nor should they have to be) and these assumptions are where the barriers appear.
The Helping Hands team found that willingness to be flexible on the part of the organisation was key to finding solutions. Access funding helped here, for example providing a pair or work boots or a deaf interpreter, alongside some creative thinking.
The culture of the organisation made all the difference too. In some cases, the team noticed that one or two individuals who only wanted to work with volunteers who were skilled and experienced had a disproportionate impact on the programme. They could prevent volunteer placements from happening and block any meaningful progress in their organisations. Sometimes, the team also encountered ‘cliqueness’ or resentment among existing volunteers. Messaging about inclusive volunteering is therefore vital: if it’s clear from the top of the organisation that it’s a priority then it becomes a priority. Where senior leaders were willing to step in to address resistance, and where staff felt empowered to bring in volunteers with additional needs – great progress was made.
Lesson Three: There is significant value in creating a culture of care in volunteer management
Volunteers consistently spoke about the value of a friendly welcome in which their needs are centred, so that from the start they feel safe in their placement. This feeling of safety and welcome is the catalyst for all the benefits that follow in terms of decreased social isolation and anxiety, improved communication skills and new learning. Across the project, volunteers, project partners, and project delivery team members described big and small ways in which they had created a safe and welcoming volunteering culture. These included a consistent point of contact for volunteers; accessible buildings with the right equipment; good induction processes and training opportunities; regular briefings and social activities; a culture of thanking volunteers; flexible volunteering opportunities and even just remembering volunteers’ birthdays!
Providing these elements ensured that volunteers were more likely to stay in their volunteering role. Inclusive Volunteering Leads highlighted that people with additional needs had potential to become valuable team members and to remain in their placements for many years once they found a place which made them feel at home.
Lesson Four: It is very difficult to make generalisations about best practice in volunteering
Throughout the course of the programme, a number of questions arose about the ethics of volunteering. When should a volunteer opportunity be a paid role? Should organisations always offer expenses? In what circumstances should you turn down a potential volunteer? What minimum standards should organisations meet before a volunteer can be placed there?
Diversity in the size, capacity and culture of participating organisations made it very difficult to make any generalisations. Best practice is heavily dependent on the wider context. If there was a rule of thumb, it was that volunteers could contribute in almost any way, providing they remained safe, well-supported and that individual needs were being met.
There was recognition that perfection is not possible in volunteer management, and that in order for organisations to learn how to be more inclusive of more diverse volunteers, they needed to take them on and make a start.
Lesson Five: Inclusive volunteering practice can benefit all volunteers, not just those with additional barriers to participation
The benefits of Helping Hands extended far beyond the newly recruited volunteers, to staff and existing volunteers, who have benefited from training opportunities, stronger networks of contacts and improved procedures and practice.
Feedback from volunteers has highlighted the fact that existing volunteer teams may need the kind of additional provision and support which has been available to Helping Hands volunteers. One response to the survey from a longstanding volunteer highlighted the need for organisations to open up more inclusive support to their existing teams.
‘I’m now increasingly disabled and I do hope to continue but I’m going to need more support. So maybe I’m becoming not ‘cost effective’? Hope you’ll still let me volunteer – means the world to me’. – Volunteer
The answer could lie in establishing processes for regular one-to-one check ins to find out whether there have been any changes to their personal circumstances, health, caring responsibilities etc which require support and adaptations. Other options include offering opportunities for volunteers to widen the scope of their responsibilities or try something new. Making sure volunteers are aware of available expenses or other forms of access funding, in case they ever need it, could also help.
What does it all mean for the sector?
For the culture sector in Cumbria, Helping Hands leaves a cohort of over 400 additional active volunteers. Cross-sector networks have been established and strengthened through effective partnership working, and the programme has left a legacy of improved skills in volunteer management across the county. Many partners have made substantial improvements to the equity and quality of their volunteering offer. There is now a tried and tested training offer specific to the needs of arts and cultural organisations available across the county and partners know where to go for specialist, locally tailored advice on aspects of accessibility, inclusion and diversity.
Above all, Helping Hands has created space for honest conversations about what it takes to create equitable volunteer opportunities. On the back of these, sometimes difficult discussions, the team has produced a recipe with ingredients for inclusive volunteering that can be applied universally to cultural organisations.
The key lies in recognising the individual needs of each volunteer and this depends on excellent volunteer management.
At a time when budgets are being cut and posts frozen, volunteer coordinators can often be among the first to go (or never a reality in the first place). Often, volunteer supervision is shoe-horned into a wider role description or dropped altogether.
Helping Hands has shown that having a dedicated member of staff focussed on volunteers significantly boosts an organisation’s ability to understand individual needs and flex to meet them. Investing in volunteer coordination pays dividends both for the individual volunteer and the organisation. Volunteers are happier, more fulfilled and stay longer – a win-win, which as it happens, is precisely what volunteering should be.
