Visitor Experience Host Volunteer
Our Visitor Experience volunteers will play a key role in enabling people to enjoy and engage in the history of the North Wing and the hospital. The role will involve:
- Giving visitors a warm welcome and answering their questions
- Helping to keep the spaces tidy and safe for visitors
- Proactively offering information about the history of the North Wing
- Helping to promote upcoming events by signposting visitors to how they can get involved
- Working closely with the Barts Heritage team and other volunteers to make everyone – visitors and staff – feel safe and welcome in the spaces
- Signposting visitors to accessibility resources which would improve their visit (e.g. large print guides, colour overlays, noise cancelling earphones).
- Recording visitor numbers
- Encouraging visitors to leave feedback, and occasionally carrying out surveys on site
- Reporting any concerns, issues or accidents promptly
- Occasionally stewarding evening and weekend events such as music events and open days
This is an exciting time to volunteer with Barts Heritage as it will be the first time in its 300 year plus history that the North Wing will be open regularly to the public.
Volunteering with us allows you to learn, meet new people, and gain new skills. Volunteering as part of our Visitor Experience team is an opportunity to share your passion and enthusiasm with our visitors by providing a warm welcome, telling stories and answering questions.
- Full training to carry out the role
- Experience in a museum and historic environment
- Reimbursement of travel expenses (cost of a Zone 1 – 4 daily travel card)
- An opportunity to work as part of a small, supportive team
- Regular social events and trips
- Opportunities to skill share with other volunteers
- The chance to give back to the hospital community in a new way
- Formal recognition of skills development to aid CV and job applications and job references if needed
There will be mandatory training to best enable you to fulfil the role, and as the North Wing is situated on a hospital site (although not a clinical building), some specific training will be provided to equip you with the knowledge and skills to welcome patients and their visitors. Training will cover:
- Health & safety Safeguarding
- Working with the public
- History of the building (including some background in medical history and language)
This is a great opportunity to gain experience in the museums and heritage sector and learn about different roles from our small team.
We are looking for people who:
- Are keen to learn about the heritage of the North Wing and hospital.
- Are welcoming to everyone regardless of their age, race, gender, sexuality or background.
- Have a positive attitude and willingness to help throughout their volunteering shifts.
In this role, volunteers are likely to come into contact with hospital patients and their visitors so we expect that anyone volunteering with us approach all visitors with compassion and understanding.