When I say I volunteer at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, I think people imagine me in full period costume walking around Shakespeare’s Birthplace listing facts about Tudor times. As fun as that sounds it’s very far from what I actually get up to.
In my role as HR volunteer, I mostly write blogs about the work of the interns and volunteers across the properties as well as creating social media content and the occasional bit of research.
I’ve been volunteering with the Trust since October 2017 after graduating from The University of York in the July of the same year. I was working part-time and wanted to carry on trying new things and gaining new skills post-education. I didn’t know what area I wanted to volunteer in; I’d never done any sort of volunteer work and I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about heritage sites.
The Trust make an effort to use you to the best of your abilities, chat about what you’ve done and where you’d be best suited
— Bethany relaying her volunteering experience
At University I did a verbatim project that involved lots of transcribing and editing interviews which make me a good person to do a series of blogs.
Since starting volunteering, I now work full time and can’t do as much as I previously did, but I’m really happy to continue my volunteering role. It’s been such a valuable experience so far and I think will continue to be. There are all sorts of reasons people volunteer, for me it’s a perfect way to gain skills, figure out what kind of direction I’d like to go in and contribute to an amazing organisation!
There are so many different volunteer roles on offer at the Trust so I’d say to anyone thinking about it to definitely do it because there is something for everyone.