Reflections of a Learning Partner
By Annette Holman
We’ve all been on a learning journey!
The past 2.5 years of the Volunteering Cities programme came to an end recently where we launched our insights report in Volunteers Week, and we thought we’d share some of our key reflections.
Neighbourly Lab was commissioned by Spirit of 2012 as the Learning and Evaluation Partner for their Volunteering Cities grant programme. The funding supported four places to strengthen their cultural volunteering infrastructure following their bids for UK City of Culture status.
Projects were funded in Bradford, Conwy, Great Yarmouth & East Suffolk, and Medway to develop place-based, cultural volunteering projects that built on the momentum of their City of Culture bid. While each place approached their programmes differently, we were able to uncover shared insights and lessons about what it takes to build sustainable, inclusive volunteering infrastructure—and overcome any challenges that arise when doing so!
And yes, let’s be honest, there were challenges, We felt them alongside the grantees. It’s never a straight road but has its ups, downs and even back and forths. We’re incredibly grateful for the grantees’ honesty in sharing their insights on their journey and for Spirit of 2012’s openness as a funder—their willingness to listen, adapt, and support the programme through its twists and turns was invaluable. This has enabled us to capture rich learning and recommendations, which we explore in detail in our final report.
There are some useful nuggets for funders, organisations and departments running competitions too!
There’s much value in an open and dynamic learning partnership, from surfacing and addressing the little bumps and larger challenges, to bringing grantees together in action learning workshops to support each other with finding solutions, sharing know-how and celebrating each other’s successes. Our approach is rooted in co-production and curiosity. We positioned ourselves as learners alongside grantees – joining their conversations, attending in-person events, bringing in external experts, and engaging with volunteers and stakeholders to gather rich insights across the programme. By taking an ethnographic approach and visiting grantee projects firsthand, we aimed to fully understand the context behind their work and delivery
I could also personally sympathise and understand their roles by myself, being a grant manager for a separate funded project at Neighbourly Lab, so I was able to balance the two sides of the learning journey as a learning partner and a grantee. This, I hope, brought a useful check point to aid with reflections through our conversations, allowing empathy and understanding, authentically realising hurdles, and providing an opportunity to offer fresh guidance and support where appropriate.
As I reflect on this journey I’ve highlighted five of the most valuable things for me:
- Speaking with volunteers from each place. Especially visiting Amdani! Conwy to, hear their stories, attend a coffee morning and understand their excellent approach to accessibility for their programme. (You can see more about their programme in this excellent video.)
- Participating in a roundtable event with Medway Changes to meet a range of stakeholders in the cultural sector listening to the barriers they were facing to supporting volunteers and how solutions could be found.
- Having conversations with those that didn’t receive funding post City of Culture, helped put things into perspective and enabled comparisons with grantees journeys to unpick the learning of the funding.
- Joining grantee conversations with Spirit of 2012 to hear direct insights and ask wider questions to steer our learning.
- Co-design and facilitating a sharing and learning session with all grantees and enabling them to celebrate their achievements.
It’s been a great programme to be part of, now reflecting on this internally, I have three considerations for funders to consider:
- Group learning is valuable – All grantees can learn from one another and bring value if you set the open and honest tone to learning. As one grantee shared: “The benefit of having three other cities with such diverse and different target groups and delivery plans, it just helped us all.”
- Making time for in person meet ups is valued – Meet ups happened in person earlier in the grant but with busy people and projects across the UK, capacity to meet in person was a challenge. However, when it did happen it was really valued especially by project leads, so I would put this as a priority at the start and ensure it does happen throughout the duration of the programme.
Ruth Hollis, CEO of Spirit of 2012 reflects on the learning partnership:
When we conceptualised Volunteering Cities as a funding round, we wanted to expand our knowledge base on what makes an effective, locally owned, inclusive volunteer project, with or without the investment and infrastructure that comes with the UK City of Culture designation.
We knew that a lot of rich learning would emerge from each of the four awarded volunteering programmes, but also that collectively there would be thematic insights around developing volunteering infrastructure. The role of the learning partner was crucial for Volunteering Cities not only in producing an independent evaluation, but also in bringing the project teams together as a cohort to share insights and challenges, and in collating lessons from each of the location’s volunteers and project teams.
Neighbourly Lab has been a valuable partner for Spirit throughout this grant programme and their final report will be of great interest to bidders for the next UK City of Culture, and for all who are truly invested in building long-term, sustainable volunteering infrastructure through events.
The programme has now come to an end and we look forward to seeing what each place goes on to achieve for their volunteering infrastructure.