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Tyne and Wear volunteer programme

The key to successful volunteer management has been discovered by Tyne and Wear Museums (TWM), a federation of 12 museums and galleries on Tyneside, through successful roll out of its innovative volunteer programme launched in 2005.

The programme, which began at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum, now involves an impressive 500 volunteers per year across the 12 sites. The scheme is not only based on a history of involvement, but also upon the museums’ recognition of the importance of volunteering, and what benefits it brings to them, as well as those participating and their communities.

The role of the Volunteer Co-ordinator, Lucy Cooke, in managing volunteers is crucial: “My role is to co-ordinate the use and placement of volunteers and enable them to maximise the benefits of the experience and what they want to get out of it.”

“It’s vital that I have strong links with outreach workers, which has helped to diversify the pool of volunteers. I also work to ensure that essential paperwork, such as CRB checking, does not impede involvement.”

The importance of volunteer help

The importance of volunteers can’t be underestimated. They have enabled TVM to carry out work it would not have otherwise due to lack of resources. For instance, volunteers often play a vital role as explainers at exhibitions offering extra insights to visitors.

“We also recognise that participation promotes user-involvement, gets the community involved with the museums and allows people to gain experience for paid work,” says Lucy.

Volunteers have been involved in a wide variety of tasks within the organisation including conservation and restoration, research, information, guiding, interpretation, and administration. As one volunteer explains, “My son says it keeps me out of trouble and where else would I get to work with such beautiful things?”

A UK quality 'standard'

TWM are signed up for the Investing in Volunteers programme – a UK quality standard for all organisations that involve volunteers in their work. The standard enables organisations to comprehensively review their volunteer management, and also publicly demonstrates their commitment to volunteering.

The programme found that one of the key barriers to volunteering was how people found out about volunteering. Added to this is some evidence that they can be put off by a formality of volunteering that is replacing spontaneity of participation.

These issues were addressed by investigating a wide variety of recruitment strategies, from word of mouth to advertising on local radio stations, and ensuring their model is flexible enough to meet a range of needs.

The success of the programme owes a debt to the feedback given by volunteers on TWM’s programme – something that suggests the environment made them feel welcomed, treated like members of a team, and appreciated for their work.

Outcomes

As one volunteer who now works full-time at the Discovery Museum explains: "My learning and development was definitely facilitated by having a manager that acknowledged I was volunteering for experience and therefore was given a variety of tasks to do and roles to perform”

Since this project was launched Tyne & Wear Museums has merged with Tyne & Wear Archives Service, which has also run a very successful volunteer programme. Work is currently underway to integrate the two programmes and provide improved opportunities for current and potential volunteers in both museums and archives.

For more detailed information on the Tyne and Wear Museum scheme please visit the case study section on the MLA research website. For more information on the Tyne & Wear Archives Service scheme, click here.