Report: Volunteering Cities – Building Inclusive Infrastructure for Cultural Volunteering
Commissioned by Spirit of 2012, our report offers rich insights into the Volunteering Cities grant programme—an initiative that supported four places to strengthen their cultural volunteering infrastructure following their bids for UK City of Culture status.
The programme, which ran from 2022 to 2025, funded projects 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 the challenge differently, the report reveals shared lessons about what it takes to build sustainable, inclusive volunteering infrastructure—and the tensions that arise when doing so.