Surprising role of Parks volunteers

RURAL: The traditional role of volunteers to enhance the work of National Parks is evolving to encompass an ever-expanding list of roles behind the scenes.

Instead of maintaining protected landscapes, volunteers are now increasingly being drawn upon to assist with administrative tasks at the North York Moors National Park.

THE TRADITIONAL role of volunteers to enhance the work of National Parks is evolving to encompass an ever-expanding list of roles behind the scenes.

Instead of simply focusing on helping to maintain protected landscapes, volunteers are now increasingly being drawn upon to assist with administrative tasks, according to a new report by the North York Moors National Park.

Seasoned volunteers are themselves now training new voluntary recruits as part of an increasingly sophisticated strategy that involves some people using their spare time to help with data-inputting tasks from home. At least 13,000 days of voluntary work was contributed to the North York Moors National Park Authority in 2017/18.

A strategy adopted by the authority in 2015 has led to every member of staff being trained to work with volunteers and they now use a computer programme to find individuals with skills that suit specific voluntary tasks.

The park’s volunteering opportunities are being expanded for special-needs groups and more corporate volunteering has been offered to businesses.

In a report to the North York Moors National Park Authority, Joan Childs, head of the park’s volunteering team, said: “Volunteering is central to how this authority works. Hundreds of people give their time, energy and expertise freely to help the authority achieve its aims.

“Thousands of days’ work are contributed by volunteers each year and the contribution that this makes to our delivery is enormous. It also makes us better engaged within communities and enables many people to enjoy and better understand the National Park while contributing to its long-term care.”

Many of the new indoor volunteering tasks can be delivered from home just as easily as from an office, her report adds. It highlights as an example a disabled administration volunteer who regularly works from home and even from hospital when he is undertaking dialysis.

“As our admin roles increase, we are hoping that remote volunteering will also increase,” Ms Childs said.

According to National Parks England, volunteers contribute more than 45,000 work days per year, worth £3.4m, across England’s National Parks.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has extended the scope of its voluntary roles too, explained volunteers development officer Sally Robertshaw.

“Traditionally the focus here was on the rights of way, patrolling them and logging repairs that needed doing, that sort of thing, but it is part of my job to expand that,” she said.

“For a long time we’ve had volunteers working in our museum, now they work in our cataloguing and built environment departments performing tasks such as archiving photographs that we couldn’t do without volunteers.”

Volunteers outnumber the park authority’s staff and between them, more than 250 volunteers contributed just over 7,000 days last year.

Their increasing role has no correlation with past cuts to government funds for the National Park, its corporate services director Richard Burnett said. “It’s not about getting volunteers to replace things which paid staff have done, it’s about involving a different group of people with all their different skills which means we can add to what we do.”

We are hoping that remote volunteering will increase. Joan Childs, head of the volunteering team at the North York Moors National Park Authority.