Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU), School of Health and Social Care, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
Primary Care and Public Health Research, Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU), School of Health and Social Care, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
Health Expect. 2023 Dec;26(6):2485-2499. doi: 10.1111/hex.13852. Epub 2023 Aug 17.
We explored experiences of volunteering in Heritage at Risk (HAR) projects, intended to mitigate the deterioration to historic assets, and the relationship with wellbeing. We aimed to understand the value of HAR to volunteers' wellbeing and relationships between HAR programme characteristics such as location, asset type and type of activity.
We used a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of volunteers recruited via Historic England (HE), employing Systematic Grounded Theory involving open, axial and selective coding.
We interviewed 35 volunteers (18 male and 17 female) participating in 10 HAR projects. We identified six themes from the data analysis. (1) Purpose-was associated with volunteering motivations; there were some barriers to volunteering and many types of facilitators, including accessibility to local heritage sites. (2) Being-volunteers showed an appreciation and attachment to their place of residence. (3) Capacity-to learn heritage-specific skills and diversify experiences in learning new skills (life, technical and personal). (4) Sharing-community engagement, connectedness, and inclusivity captured diversity and inclusion within volunteers across age, ethnicity, ability, and gender. (5) Self-nurture-HAR volunteering created physical, psychological, and social benefits with limited risks and adverse outcomes. (6) Self-actualisation-described volunteers reflecting on their experiences.
HAR volunteering was associated with positive physical, social and psychological wellbeing outcomes. The study provides an evidence base for specific wellbeing benefits of volunteering at Heritage at Risk sites, although we could not conclude that HAR project activity was the cause of increased wellbeing.
Staff from HE were involved in designing the project brief. In selecting the HAR project sites, we took advice and recommendations from HE staff across all their six regional offices.
我们探讨了在遗产风险（HAR）项目中志愿服务的体验，旨在减轻历史资产的恶化，并探讨其与幸福感的关系。我们旨在了解 HAR 对志愿者幸福感的价值，以及项目特征（如地点、资产类型和活动类型）之间的关系。
我们采用了定性设计，通过有目的的抽样，对通过英格兰遗产（HE）招募的志愿者进行半结构化访谈，采用系统扎根理论，包括开放式、轴向式和选择性编码。
我们采访了 35 名志愿者（18 名男性和 17 名女性），他们参与了 10 个 HAR 项目。我们从数据分析中确定了六个主题。（1）目的与志愿服务动机相关；存在一些志愿服务障碍和多种促进因素，包括获得当地遗产地的机会。（2）存在志愿者对居住地点的欣赏和依恋。（3）能力-学习遗产特定技能的能力，并在学习新技能（生活、技术和个人）方面多样化经验。（4）分享-社区参与、联系和包容性捕捉了志愿者在年龄、种族、能力和性别方面的多样性和包容性。（5）自我养育-HAR 志愿服务带来了身体、心理和社会方面的好处，风险和不良后果有限。（6）自我实现-描述志愿者对自己的经验进行反思。
HAR 志愿服务与积极的身体、社会和心理健康幸福感结果相关。该研究为在遗产风险地点志愿服务的特定幸福感益处提供了证据基础，尽管我们不能得出 HAR 项目活动是幸福感增加的原因的结论。
HE 的工作人员参与了项目简报的设计。在选择 HAR 项目地点时，我们听取了 HE 工作人员在其六个地区办事处的建议和推荐。
