Why Volunteering is Good for Your Wellbeing!
As part of Mental Health Awareness Week 2020, our Deputy CEO Niamh Oldham gives you her top 5 reasons why volunteering is good for your wellbeing! There are definitely more than 5 reasons, and if you’d like to volunteer for Escape, Niamh can tell you them all! Get in touch via email for an informal chat, volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
Front of House Hosts
The front of house exhibition hosts act as the face of the charity at the Escape Arts & Heritage Centre. The hosts are fully trained in our exhibitions, artefacts and artist pieces to deliver the story of the centre and its many characters to the public. The role will include training, greeting visitors, guiding them around the exhibition and answering questions. An important part of the role is making visitors feel welcome and helping them to get the best visitor experience from the exhibitions and gallery space. An exciting opportunity for individuals who are keen to learn more about the history of our town and enjoy sharing this with new people. For more information, please contact volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
Community Events Volunteers
Escape Arts participate in many one-off local events and celebrations throughout the year, including the Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations, Motor Festival and Stratford River Festival and we are always looking for volunteers who are happy to get involved with our family friendly arts and crafts activities. The role will include training about our work as an organisation and spreading the work of Escape across the community during a range of fun activities. Applicants who enjoy dressing up are very welcome! Watch Tori Rushton tell you all about the different ways you can get involved! For more information, contact volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
One to One Participant Support
Our one to one participant support volunteers work at the heart of the charity, supporting our participants. This role can be undertaken at any of our groups in Stratford & Nuneaton and can range from helping a participant with their art work in Paper Moon (our group of adults with learning disabilities), to supporting our VIP Veterans & Interesting Pensioners brunch. For more information, contact volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
Volunteer Researchers & Heritage Champions
Our volunteer researchers work at the heart of our heritage work, collecting stories from local people to be transformed into projects. In the past, we have relied on volunteer researchers to find the human stories in our exhibitions, which has in turn led to multiple oral history films led by our volunteer researchers. Our volunteer researchers are also given the power to choose which topics interest them and have a key hand in putting interview questions together. Watch Mark Pitcher telling you all about the heritage work he does for us and why you should get involved too! For more information, contact volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
Youth Volunteers & Work Experience
Our Youth Volunteers take part in all of the above roles, joining us at the Slaughterhouse, at festivals and during our community groups. We support young people in volunteer hours for Duke of Edinburgh Award, Arts Award & Lions Leadership Award. We also have a dedicated work experience programme, where young volunteers work with our groups & work on their own art and heritage project to form part of our living archive and their lasting legacy with us. For more information, contact volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
Make Your Own Volunteer Role!
We are very flexible and we accept volunteers in whatever way they can help us out! Some people volunteer with us in their homes! We have cake makers, who make cakes for our café and a number of volunteer drivers, who help us to drive the Escape bus and bring participants to and from sessions. We also have volunteers who look after our social media channels from home, organise archiving databases for our artefacts & coming up with new fundraising strategies. If you’ve got something you can do for us from your home, contact volunteer@escapearts.org.uk
What our visitors say...
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We had a lovely time visiting, enjoying the exhibits and tea & cake! Yummy! We think Emma and the team are first class… Keep shining!
The Timlins, Leamington Spa
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Love this gorgeous find! A warm welcome and a step back in time, sprinkled with art!
The Johnsons, Saffron Walden
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I’m an American tourist and this is the BEST place I have visited in England! They were so generous and welcoming! 100 out of 10 would recommend!
Anita Labelle, Boston