1. Working towards wellbeing without any budget
Mind over Matter
Working towards wellbeing without any budget

2. Who we are what we do
York Museums Trust has over two hundred and fifty active volunteers across three museums in the City of York at any one time. The volunteers team manage their recruitment, training, activities and wellbeing while they are part of our network. 70% of them are visitor facing, engaging with the public and interpreting collections. The remaining 30% are behind the scenes with departments assisting in collections care. Our team of volunteers give visitors the opportunity to connect with history and the stories of real people.
We have over 100 members of staff across three museums on a variety of contracts from zero hours to permanent like most organisations. Public facing staff is by far the majority with departs of curatorial, learning, marketing, membership, digital, events and H&S. In such a large organisation spanning a city communication and cohesion can be difficult.
We have, with the support of the SMT and HR, have begun to assess and implement H&W initiatives.
Quite often H&W is not new to heritage organisations, it is something have done for decades but it is important to value this impact on our visitors and volunteers and begin to look at our staff as well.

3. Museum Development Yorkshire
The group will meet three times in the financial year
The meetings included training, networking and an opportunity for peer review
Each museum has developed their own H&W resource or event
There was small implementation fund of c.£500. (Not available to YMT due to being Arts Council funded)
A cohort study trip to Manchester Museums
The final meeting will be an evaluation session with all participants speaking about their work
As you may have heard from other presentations, Museum Development Yorkshire have brought together a variety of museums and galleries to provide support to each other with H&W initiatives. This has involved training, study visitors, networking and peer to peer support.
As an organisation who its Arts Council funded we were unable to access the implementation fund from the MDY. Which was not a major issue as much of what we wanted to do was internal and part of our role. However, we are seeking external funding for future projects.
What this group has allowed us to do is be positive of what we can do within our roles to increase H&W with users and staff. It doesn’t have to be a big project involving lots of different users with a variety of needs but, small interventions make big differences.

4. Stage one – Assessing wellbeing
It has increased my confidence with speaking to numbers of people
helped to settle into a new town
I think I am more confident as a result
Regular exercise!!!! and meeting new people
Volunteers survey
Out of 161 volunteers surveyed we had 73 respondents from across our visitor facing and back of house volunteers. Alongside questions of their experience with YMT volunteer programme we asked a question on H&W.
‘What impact would you say your volunteering has had on your general wellbeing?’
We were astounded by some of the comments from volunteers on how much it has a positive impact on their lives. From building confidence to being more active and finding new friends to using their interests in a positive way to help others.
Many of them actually made us cry a little with the impact with had had on their lives. We have always known that volunteering has these outcomes but with these personal accounts we have wanted to sustain and increase these results.
I’m not
dead yet

5. YMT’s 5 ways to Wellbeing
Thought provoking
Helping others
Learning something new
Meeting people
Get Active!
The five ways to wellbeing are a fantastic way to understand how we can increase wellbeing in ourselves.
connect.
be active.
take notice.
keep learning.
give.
For individuals these terms are very useful but as an organisation I think they need to be a little bit more specific and unique to the culture of the institution. So we came up with our own five ways which by using SMART
Get Active
Thought provoking
Helping others
Learning something new
Meeting people
We will use these terms in a variety of ways. Firstly, we have used them to reassess our volunteering advertisement by changing the language to suit them. We will also use these are a bases for the next Volunteers Survey. Following on this I am hoping to get this adopted by all departments so we can think about wellbeing with all projects. We are currently in the process of changing our events page so you can search using these terms for events.

6. Some examples of our advertisement

7. Programme of events 2017
Date
Activity
Location
Time
Thursday 26th January
Mindfulness Taster Session With Mark From York Mind
Castle, Kirk Room
5:15pm
Thursday 23rd February
Making Sock Toys With Sarah
12-1 And 1-2
Thursday 30th March
Making Chocolate Truffles With Laura For Easter
Castle, Kitchens
Thursday 27th April
Yoga – With Philip
Thursday 25th May
Still Life Drawing With Rob W
Art Gallery, Studio
12-1, 1-2
Thursday 29th June
Film Night
Yorkshire Museum, TA Hall
Thursday 27th July
Picasso Pictures – Making Collages With Fiona G
YAG – Meet Coca1
12-1,1-2
Thursday 31st August
Thursday 28th September
Edible Wood Walk
Gardens – Meet Back Of YAG
12:30 And 1:30
Thursday 26th October
Introduction To Mindful Art Tours With Fiona G
YAG, Burton Gallery
Thursday 30th November
Homemade Christmas Decorations With M
5:15
We sent out requests to staff and volunteers to see if people would like to host an activity. We were surprised how many people offered their time and resources and Fi has wonderfully organised this in to a series of events which people can sign up to. This is hopefully only going to expand and have a wider variety of activities.

8. Ongoing project ‘Grow’ Creating a physic garden
Working with groups who will benefit from the activity
Commissioning
New Health and Wellbeing coordinator
Assessing how we can improve wellbeing in partnership with the NHS and local government
Events
Wider diversity of events both internal and external
Assessing staff H&W

9. York Museums Trust
Fiona Green and Philip Newton