A group of volunteers with repointing tools and buckets of mortar in front of a stone building.
A group of volunteers training in the use of lime mortar at Allen Smelt Mill, Northumberland, in 2016. © Allen Valleys Partnership Scheme
A group of volunteers training in the use of lime mortar at Allen Smelt Mill, Northumberland, in 2016. © Allen Valleys Partnership Scheme

Wellbeing Case Study: Volunteering for Heritage at Risk

Assessing wellbeing outcomes for volunteers from completed Heritage at Risk project work.

About the project

During 2020-21 Historic England commissioned the University of Lincoln to undertake the Heritage at Risk and Wellbeing project to explore the relationship between wellbeing and volunteering in activities dealing with assets on the Heritage at Risk Register. The Heritage at Risk and Wellbeing work has thrown new light on the ways in which heritage volunteering is associated with wellbeing and has identified achievable objectives for the future which will help people, places and our understanding and appreciation of the preserved past.

Analysis confirmed previous anecdotal evidence from Heritage at Risk staff at Historic England that wellbeing is associated with Heritage at Risk volunteering.

Coding showed this wellbeing to fall into six themes:

  • purpose
  • being
  • capacity
  • sharing
  • self-nurture
  • self-actualisation.

These were all underpinned by the unique HAR experiential ‘offer’ of heritage and at-risk assets.

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