DREAMS COME TRUE WHEN DOING ARCHAEOLOGY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 26/12/2020

For the last decade, Thames Discovery Programme has worked with volunteer Foreshore Recording and Observation Group (FROG) members to monitor and record the fragile archaeology of the Greater London Thames foreshore. The programme has developed a flexible model of volunteering, which means that once FROG members have completed their training they can choose where, when and how often they get involved. We provide a range of different ways people can contribute, including fieldwork, desk-based research, outreach and oral history projects. It’s increasingly being realised that volunteer roles which expect people to make large and/or regular time commitments, do not reflect modern lifestyles. In this paper, I will explore how flexible volunteering roles provide the opportunity for people to fit volunteering into increasingly busy and time-pressured, 21st century lives. Volunteer-involving organisations are increasingly developing flexible volunteering opportunities to encourage more people to get involved and ensure the sustainability of their services. In this talk, I will demonstrate how Thames Discovery Programme’s flexible volunteering model has allowed us to enable more people to volunteer in archaeology. I will discuss how what we have learnt could be used by other community archaeology projects and anyone working with volunteers, to make volunteering in archaeology more accessible and attractive to more a diverse range of people.


Author(s): Johnston, Helen (Thames Discovery Programme, MOLA)