Volunteering: Cynon Valley Trust Museum

The Cynon Valley Trust Museum (CVTM) needed to widen their volunteer pool. This was due to various reasons including several volunteers moving on, and after reviewing their volunteering policy, they realised they could use volunteering to engage the community.

Interlink RCT’s Volunteering Officer met with the Trust and invited them to join the Managing Volunteers Network in Cwm Taf. Having joined the network, they hosted one of its meetings, and it gave them a wider understanding of the voluntary and community sector in RCT. range of referral organisations. This included Interlink RCT, the Jobcentre, Communities for Work and others. They ran a social media campaign using relevant local Facebook groups, which recruited volunteers and visitors. CVTM focused on outcomes for the volunteers themselves rather than themselves as an organisation.

The number of their volunteers swelled to 65, which included 45 regular volunteers. This made a big difference and meant that each shift could be covered by four volunteers, with no gaps in their rotas. The work diversified their volunteer base which became a better representation of their local population.

Also we have been regularly booking their rooms as when doing training or funding events. This helps the organisation to be financially sustainable.