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What role should volunteers play in parks?

A Parks Charitable Trust could increase community involvement and offer more and different volunteering opportunities, contributing to the parks’ upkeep. People volunteer for many reasons, and volunteering differs from park to park.

 What role should communities and volunteers play in parks? 

More Info

Mobile Volunteering

Accreditation

Organising

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Contribute your ideas and opinions to shape the future of our parks!

Gosforth Trinity Church Workshop

Gosforth Trinity Church Workshop
24/04/2017

"Parks rangers would play a crucial role offering guidance to volunteers. Volunteers are added value but not would not be able to replace rangers. All groups should be represented in a possible charitable trust. The role of volunteers should be flexible and a trust should ensure benefits to all volunteers." — Workshop Team Three

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Gosforth Trinity Church Workshop

Gosforth Trinity Church Workshop
24/04/2017

"The Trust should support the work of volunteers, not the other way around! Volunteers should not be viewed as cheap labour, but rather an integral part of governance. There will need to be a guaranteed structure to ensure that volunteers voices are represented and they have a say in how things are run. However, you also need to ensure that there are optional levels of engagement and commitment levels. There should be more of a drive to engage wider, more diverse groups of people - raising awareness of the various ways people can contribute and making inclusive opportunities. Also, more of an effort to involve the student communities. " — Workshop Team One

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Ruth Connolly

Ruth Connolly
23/04/2017

I am a regular volunteer. We cannot replace the expertise of the park rangers (fat chance!). We don't have their knowledge or training or experience. there are a couple of things to flag up. Whilst volunteers are very willing and committed, most of us have limited spare time. A lot of people who volunteer are also committed to the idea of public space and public ownership and may not be sympathetic to higher levels of commercialisation that exclude some park users. I like the idea of accreditation and many volunteers have brilliant organisational skills and experience but there are time-costs here that have to be carefully considered. Send a proposal to Friends groups and gauge the interest?

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Martin Laban

Martin Laban
20/04/2017

A great addition to core staff. Otherwise it's simply an incarnation of the Big Society values in which the people are responsible for everything but accountable to no one.

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Jesmond Dene Workshop

Jesmond Dene Workshop
23/03/2017

"Volunteers needs rangers and guidance. However, the role of volunteers could be expanded to include admin work for example. Any possible Trust should support volunteers to use their expertise and skills as well as local knowledge and experiences. Volunteers could contribute to a future charity in many ways – there could also be a role for the parks forum to represent volunteers’ groups and feed back onto the Trust." — Workshop Team 4

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Twitter

Twitter
23/03/2017

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Twitter

Twitter
23/03/2017

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Twitter

Twitter
23/03/2017

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Tyne Riverside Country Park Workshop

Tyne Riverside Country Park Workshop
21/03/2017

"Volunteers can help with parks maintenance but they need guidance of what to do. They can also do awareness raising with the local communities." — Workshop participant

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Tyne Riverside Country Park Workshop

Tyne Riverside Country Park Workshop
21/03/2017

"There should be opportunities for more experienced volunteers to have a greater role, if they want to. But volunteers should be given a choice and opportunities according to their skills and the needs of the parks. Guidance and support would be very much needed to support the development of local projects." — Workshop Team

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