HEY! Volunteering
Nearly 3,000 volunteers signed up for Hull 2017 UK City of Culture, many of them first-time volunteers. From the outset, the plan was to establish support mechanisms to keep them volunteering after the festival ended.
Five years on, the Hull City of Council Legacy Volunteering Programme is now managed by Visit Hull and East Yorkshire (VHEY), a partnership between Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council funded by Spirit of 2012. VHEY took on responsibility for managing the volunteering programme from the arts organisation Absolutely Cultured in 2021. VHEY’s remit is more closely aligned with the volunteering programme, with volunteers welcoming visitors to the area.
Today, the volunteers are a visible presence near visitor attractions in their distinctive turquoise uniforms, having found in 2017 that uniforms can incentivise regular volunteering. While many volunteers give their time to cultural and heritage organisations and to welcome visitors, many are also vaccine volunteers or volunteer in schools and for charities. In February 2022, VHEY recruited 85 new volunteers, with plans to recruit even more.
John got involved as a volunteer in Hull through his wife, Janet, and it has helped him see more of his city and meet new people.
“The experience has been (and still is) very rewarding. We have volunteered at many events, doing different roles including meeting and greeting visitors to the city. We are busy doing two or three shifts each week ranging from coffee mornings at a community library to shifts at the information pod in the travel interchange.
“Because of the diversity of the opportunities we have been involved in we no longer have a “comfort zone’. We have made many new lifelong friends with many other volunteers who we socialise with (COVID permitting) including Christmas parties. As a result of our volunteer training, we have gained knowledge and experience of many different communities. “I have carried on volunteering because I enjoy it and also get a lot from it. It makes me feel good to do something for my city.”
