Archives: Wigan & Leigh win the national Archive Volunteering Award for 2022
The Archives and Records Association (ARA) is pleased to announce in Volunteers’ Week 2022 that the Revealing Wigan Archives project by Archives: Wigan & Leigh has won the national Archive Volunteering Award 2022.
The Archive Volunteering Award is given each year to projects which demonstrate how archives have supported volunteers in the previous 12 months. The awards are supported by the Archives and Records Association (who also administer the awards), the UK National Archives, the National Records of Scotland, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Welsh Government.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 12 months up to May 2022 limited the opportunities of many archives’ volunteers. Despite this, the ultimate winner, Archives: Wigan & Leigh, put forward an outstanding application for their Revealing Wigan Archives project. Their volunteer centred approach to the reorganisation of the volunteer offer alongside the opening of their refurbished building, which brought numerous benefits to the service, the volunteers and the local community, was an impressive achievement in any year, without the added complications of operating within the restrictions of the pandemic.
Sally Bevan, Archive Volunteering Award judging panel member says:
“The award panel were impressed with the management of the project, together with its well thought out design. It is a very sustainable model, incorporating a diversity of heritage roles that enables volunteers to develop their skills in a wide variety of ways, both on-site and on-line. The judges commend the dedicated work of the volunteers, which has had a positive impact on the local community, helping to develop a sense of pride in the local area and its history, and raise the profile of the service. The project is a real ray of sunshine during difficult times”
Kate Moore an Archives: Wigan & Leigh Collections Volunteer on an outreach day cleaning Wigan Quarter Sessions Documents in Leigh’s Spinning Gate Shopping Centre - image courtesy of Archives: Wigan & Leigh
Local archives and record offices protect and preserve local culture and heritage. They can engender pride of place and bring the community together. Through volunteering opportunities they give a diverse range of people the chance to celebrate and share local stories. All these aspects were seen in the Revealing Wigan Archives project which made the archives more accessible, more inclusive and more welcoming to visitors. In the process they:
Improved the volunteer offer making it volunteer-centred
Increased the number of volunteers who now give roughly the equivalent in hours worked of two and half full-time staff posts
Increased the diversity of their volunteers by offering virtual volunteering
“I love transcribing the old records from home as I can't get out of the house much because of my infirmity. It makes me feel useful as I'm limited to what I can physically do” Joanne Morton, Digital Volunteer - Archives: Wigan & Leigh Volunteer
Improved accessibility to the public
Helped volunteers into paid employment
Developed processes and guides that will help other council services who use volunteers
Increased community engagement
Created a safe, free space where people could feel pride in their community and local area
“Me and my family loved looking around this wonderful exhibition. Full of interesting facts and history of our local town and surrounding areas. Who realised Leigh had such inspirational people and pivotal events. Fantastic” Visitor to Archives: Wigan and Leigh.
Delivered the project aims of creating a new permanent exhibition space and expanding Wigan and Leigh Archives with the aim of creating a resource which was considerably more accessible, open and inviting to the public, whilst also offering community-based services on a daily basis.
Provided wellbeing benefits to volunteers during the COVID-19 lockdowns
“[it has been] a game changer for me since I retired. Throughout the COVID-19 lockdown it gave me a real sense of purpose. A photography project propelled me out of the house lining up the same shots of photos taken a hundred years ago of local churches and familiar landmarks”
Andrea Foster, Visitor Engagement Volunteer - Archives: Wigan & Leigh Volunteer
Michael Caine an Archives: Wigan & Leigh Visitor Engagement Volunteer exploring archive collections with local dignitaries at the opening celebration - image courtesy of Archives: Wigan & Leigh
Alex Miller, Ex-Assistant Business Partner, Archives says
"From the very beginning the Volunteers at Archives: Wigan & Leigh played a huge part in the success of the Revealing Wigan Archives project. With the new premises now open, the Volunteer team continues to be at the very heart of the Archives, adding their knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for sharing local history to everything the Archives does. Volunteers support the Archives team working on collections, research, Past Forward magazine, with exhibition and school visitors, on conservation and digitisation projects – the service wouldn't be the same without them!"
Lesley O’Halloran, Director of Customer and Culture at Wigan Council says
“I am delighted that our project and our amazing volunteers have been recognised like this. Our community highly values the archives, it helps people to connect with their shared heritage and provides a safe accessible space that they can visit throughout the year. It is important that public spaces like ours exist, especially where customers can feel pride in their sense of place and celebrate local history.
Young people, particularly school children, need exciting and inventive ways to help them become interested in history. We want the next generation to understand the importance of their history and that of the place they live. Our volunteers play a significant role in this. I am sure that they will take great pride in knowing that we have been given this award.”
John Chambers, Chief Executive of the Archives and Records Association says
“Learning about this outstanding project from Archives: Wigan & Leigh really reinforces the enormous value of local volunteers in local archives. Bringing the community together with an enhanced pride in their local area and enabling engagement across that community to celebrate local heritage and culture in an area of deprivation is a huge achievement. Archives carry the culture of a nation or a place into the future and protect the memories of its people. The people of Wigan and Leigh can now be assured that their community and its history will not just be preserved but will be representative of them and the lives they lead now, thanks to the involvement of so many local people in delivering the Revealing Wigan Archives project.”
The two runners-up, The UK National Archives’ In Their Own Write and The Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre’s Know Your Place Wiltshire E-Volunteering Project also showed how adapting their volunteering offer brought benefits beyond simply coping with the various COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions that occurred between March 2020 and February 2022.
Kath Morton, Bill Morton, Glenys McClellan, Sue Ring, Janice Hatton, Archives: Wigan & Leigh Family History Volunteers - image courtesy of Archives: Wigan & Leigh
Background to Revealing Wigan Archives the Archives: Wigan & Leigh award-winning project:
Major refurbishment project beginning in 2018
Archives: Wigan & Leigh were awarded a £1.3 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant in 2018 to undertake a major refurbishment, create a new permanent exhibition space and expand Wigan and Leigh Archives with the aim of creating a resource which was considerably more accessible, open and inviting to the public, whilst also offering community-based services on a daily basis.
In January 2021, with building work completed they could begin to deliver on these aims. Knowing that volunteers would play an integral role in this they relooked at the volunteer offer.
COVID-19 impact on volunteering
“Opening during the pandemic made us all think differently about volunteering and how we can reach volunteers and communities despite hurdles, what might initially have seemed like a roadblock, might turn out to be a bridge! For example volunteers who came in on different days when they were in the archives in person and so had never met, bonded over shared zoom quizzes.” Revealing Wigan Archives project team member
Volunteers needed more diversity in their roles, and improvements to accessibility as a result of COVID-19 isolation policies. The formalised Archives roles needed to respond to the changing needs of the improved archives service, enable skills development, increase social wellbeing and provide opportunities to join a like-minded community.
Improving accessibility for all
The archive attracts people from across the country. The digitisation, varied exhibitions and accessibility means that anyone with a passion for history can engage with, and benefit from the archive. Volunteers of all disciplines act as ambassadors for the archives, developing links with under-represented groups and diversify the collection, making sure the archive as a collection, and the archive as a venue is a space for everyone. The project helps increase access to archives, ensuring that everyone has the same ability to use the facilities.
“Starting as a Visitor engagement volunteer, I have loved talking to members of the public who have called to see the new archives exhibition… it's all a time travellers dream”
Visitor Engagement Volunteer - Archives: Wigan & Leigh
Developing the new volunteer offer with a volunteer-centred approach
In developing the new volunteer offer and roles the project team always bore in mind that this group of people were integral to the success of the project and would continue to be vital to sustain it. In reorganising the volunteers into different groups, each one making a significant contribution to the running of the archive and delivery of the project, they took a volunteer centred approach which delivered many benefits.
The process of standardising and improving the volunteer offer began in 2020 with a consultation process with the current volunteer team. This helped the project team understand what changes they could make to improve their experience and ability to work at the archives. Alongside this they incorporated best practice and other professional approaches to write a set of Standard Operating Procedures and policies. As part of this they also streamlined the recruitment process (making it easier for volunteers to join) and developed social links for volunteers, creating things such as a Facebook Group and regular monthly quizzes. This helped improve volunteer morale, particularly as many had struggled with a lack of human contact during the COVID-19 restrictions, with one volunteer describing it as her ‘lifeline to normality’ during the pandemic.
Preparing to reopen
Prior to the reopening of the building in 2021, the archive ran their biggest ever training and induction program to welcome new and old volunteers back. They also launched two brand new roles: Learning Volunteers and Visitor Engagement Volunteers. These two new roles meant they could offer considerably more activities and services for visitors and strengthened the archive as a community.
Virtual volunteering
At the end of 2021, they also launched their Virtual Volunteering offer. This increased the number of volunteers by 15 and also helped them to reach younger people as well as those from under-represented groups who may not have been able to travel to the archives in person. This helped with their aim of increasing the diversity of volunteers who work at the archives.
Benefits to volunteers and the service
A total of 101 volunteers are now on the Archives: Wigan & Leigh roster including 66 recruited between 2020 and 2022 – with the majority recruited in 2021.
In the twelve months from April 2021 to April 2022, these volunteers have given 5145.72 hours to the archives, this is the equivalent of 137, 37.5 hour working weeks – roughly the equivalent of two and a half full time staff positions.
The archive has also hosted 19 Placement and Work Experience Students, from over six Universities, Colleges and High Schools, including four students on a paid internship, in collaboration with Employ Autism.
The new roles have improved the volunteer offer by allowing volunteers to ‘specialise’ in areas that align with their interests, this has also meant that volunteers looking for work experience have been able to develop new skills that have helped them to gain employment. Since the launch of the final phase of the Revealing Wigan Archives project in 2021, at least one placement student and one Learning Volunteer has gone on to gain paid employment in the sector, and many more have built on their experiences from the project to gain paid employment.
This diversification of volunteering roles as part of this project has also allowed volunteers to work from home digitising collections, widening the participation for people who could not visit the building in person due to health or other reasons.
Challenges come with change
Making these changes was not without challenges, Rosie Lampard, project team member of Revealing Wigan Archives says:
“There was initial reluctance from several volunteers to operate in a different way to how they used to in the Archives. The team had to spend time explaining the project in detail to highlight its value and their role in delivering it. Now, the increase in our volunteer team, and the fact all volunteers stayed from pre-pandemic, shows us that we managed to solve this issue and create a motivated team, as we can see in the positive feedback we consistently receive from customers.”
Sharing the learning
Learning from the project (Standard operating procedures, policies and handbooks) is being shared with other council services with their standardised program and examples of good practice being used across the Wigan Council Culture Team. This will continue to be implemented across services which will help volunteers to feel ownership and community in their places.
The Archives Team will also continue to develop and grow the Volunteering program and nurture the sense of community in the service. They look to grow this through continuing to listen to the volunteers needs and respond with collection and outreach based work that suits both the volunteers and the people of Wigan.
Project Partner: National Lottery Heritage Fund; Leigh Family History Society
Project Team: Alex Miller Hannah Turner Sally Smith Rosie Lampard Jilly McKiernan
Project Timeline: The project began in 2018 and is due to complete in December 2023.
The capital phase of the Revealing Wigan Archives project ended in spring 2021 with new facilities reopening to volunteers in June 2021 (as part of the project’s Activity Plan, completing in December 2023).
Project website: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Museums-archives/Wigan- Archives/Wigan-and-Leigh-Exhibition.aspx
New Volunteering Groups:
Visitor Engagement Volunteers – The visitor engagement volunteers meet and greet visitors and help at events, talk about local history, answer questions.
Learning Volunteers – The Learning Volunteers facilitate school visits. Children visit the archives and learn about local history in a hands-on way. They interact with items and real-life history. Much of this work is facilitated by the volunteers.
Family History Volunteers – These volunteers help with family history enquiries. Visitors will come to the archives with queries around family members and loved ones, and the volunteers help track these individuals down. This provides much-needed closure to many of the people who visit the archives. This service offer is entirely volunteer led. Volunteers from Leigh Family History Society support the delivery of the helpdesk, they man the desk, train new volunteers and have delivered bespoke sessions, this was delivered flexibly online for the first part of 2021 to keep volunteers and customers safe.
Collections Volunteers – They transcribe, digitise and clean the archive every day. This helps maintain the accessibility of the archive, and helps to sustain it for future generations.
Digitisation volunteers - The digitisation volunteers use the new conservation studio to take high quality images of the archive collection, increasing the accessibility of the collection and increasing public awareness of the collection through our social media channels.
Virtual Volunteers – This was a newly created role for 2021. These volunteers transcribe records at home most days of the week, and the volunteers are predominantly young people. This exciting new volunteering role is part of our work to improve accessibility and the opportunities on offer for volunteers
About the Archive Volunteering Awards
These national awards are an opportunity to thank our volunteers for all their continued support and work. Awards are given to projects which demonstrate how archives have supported volunteers through the past year and have adapted projects to suit their circumstances whether remotely or in new ways of working together.
Winners have a national platform to celebrate their volunteers’ contribution to the service and gain publicity for their archive’s role in supporting individuals and community through volunteering programmes.
Details of the awards process and previous award winners can be found here.
The awards are administered by the Archives and Records Association and are supported by:
The Archives and Records Association
The UK National Archives
National Records of Scotland
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
The Welsh Government