Community Heritage Volunteer Recruitment Campaign

Overview

In response to the issues and challenges facing the sector, and to support COVID-19 recovery activity, Make Your Mark is proposing a Community Heritage Volunteer Recruitment Campaign and we would like your views on it.

We appreciate the time you're taking to share your experience as a volunteer-involving heritage organisation.

This survey has 12 questions and may take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. All responses are anonymous, and we are not collecting any personal data.

Please provide one response per organisation.

Background
COVID-19 has presented new challenges for the sector. In May 2020, Historic Environment Scotland carried out a COVID-19 impact survey and results indicated:

• 25% of heritage sector organisations reported a lack of available volunteers due to the pandemic
• Concerns about succession planning and displacement of volunteers
• Uncertainty about whether volunteers would be available for planned activities this year
• Concerns about health of aging volunteers and whether they can continue
• Challenges for the continued operations of volunteer boards

From talking with the sector, feedback suggests that there are growing issues for volunteer-involving organisations relating to the sustainability of activities due to furloughing of staff, changes in volunteer personal circumstances, displacement of volunteer managers and shifts in resource away from volunteer management.

What is the campaign?

Our aim is to deliver a volunteer recruitment campaign on behalf of community heritage organisations.

The campaign will be designed to have a long lifespan in relation to volunteer recruitment for the heritage sector and will support sector resilience into the future.

We'll work with key partners to design and deliver a recruitment campaign to match potential volunteers with volunteering opportunities.

We'll promote heritage volunteering opportunities to existing community support networks and deliver a public campaign to reach out to new volunteers. We'll also work with intermediary/advocacy organisations that represent diversity and inclusion within communities and link with special interest groups.

Resources to support participating organisations will be made available and volunteer roles may include existing or new roles, one-off tasks, temporary roles, or longer-term engagement.

What is Make Your Mark?

Make Your Mark is a sector-led campaign currently under development. It aims to increase the number and diversity of heritage volunteers in Scotland. By focusing on inclusive volunteering, Make Your Mark will help to build stronger communities and recruit new stewards to ensure and shape the future of our heritage.

Make Your Mark is overseen by a working group composed of major stakeholders in the heritage and voluntary sectors: Historic Environment Scotland, Museums Galleries Scotland, National Galleries Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Civic Trust, Doors Open Days, Archaeology Scotland, Dig It!, Heritage Trust Network and Volunteer Scotland.

Further information available at makeyourmark.scot

Why your views matter

We're undertaking this survey with volunteer-involving heritage organisations to better understand demand and best timing for this recruitment campaign.

We're aware that circumstances may have changed over the last few months, and so we want to gauge capacity within organisations to welcome new volunteers.

Results from this survey will also inform demand for volunteer roles and tasks, types of roles and tasks and other support requirements.