We wanted to do something a little bit different to thank the Culture Track volunteers for all their efforts and to celebrate the success of the project. So we held a celebration event in the Great Hall at the Discovery Museum where the volunteers were presented with a certificate to commemorate their achievements and then we headed off for a fantastic Chinese banquet and a spot of karaoke.
The Culture Track Volunteers
I didn’t realise how many talented singers we have within our group. We were entertained with beautiful renditions of Tom Jones classics, The Beatles and even Madonna made an appearance! There was also a little friendly rivalry between the tables, competing over who could sing Hey Jude the loudest. I think the restaurant staff were very impressed.
David and Bridgette serenading us with Islands in the Stream
Everyone clearly enjoyed the food!
Over the past 20 months I’ve been coordinating the Culture Track Project. It’s been a really exciting and busy time, creating training programmes and volunteering roles to support unemployed people to prepare for employment. I’ve supported 69 unemployed people to develop skills and experience through volunteering in the museums.
We had a lot to celebrate as the volunteers have achieved so much. The volunteers completed more than 2300 hours of skills development, on average that’s about 40 hours each. 16 volunteers secured jobs and 27 volunteers moved into further education, training and further volunteering.
The funding for the project, from ONE North East, unfortunately came to an end on September 30th and so I’m currently working to secure further funding in order to continue the Culture Track Project and will be keeping my fingers crossed!