Research Highlights Link Between Heritage Volunteering and Wellbeing

New research has thrown new light on the relationship between heritage volunteering and emotional wellbeing and is giving people across Europe more opportunities to benefit from such activities.

Two projects from the University of Lincoln, UK, have advanced knowledge of the physical, psychological, and social benefits of community heritage activities for people in the UK, and have introduced these activities into rural communities across Europe.

The University was commissioned by Historic England to undertake the Heritage at Risk and Wellbeing (HARAW) project to explore the relationship between wellbeing and volunteering on heritage sites.

Researchers conducted interviews with 35 volunteers who had taken part in volunteering at UK heritage sites that are most at risk of being lost because of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.

Participant responses showed a variety of different wellbeing outcomes for volunteers, including gaining a sense of purpose, being altruistic, acquiring skills, knowledge and experience, fulfilling aspirations and increasing attachment to place and community. Other wellbeing benefits including increased physical activity and wider social interaction.

Beyond the UK, opportunities for the wider public to participate in community archaeology are rare in many European countries. This is despite surveys showing people across the continent are very interested in heritage and do want a closer relationship with it.

As a result of the interest shown, another project has been carried out exploring the potential benefits of participative archaeology in three countries where it has rarely been done before – the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Poland.

The ‘Community Archaeology in Rural Environments Meeting Societal Challenges’ (CARE-MSoC) project explored the value and impact of excavation by rural residents within their home communities.

This three-year project, funded through the European Union Horizon 2020 Cultural Heritage Joint Project Initiative, invited hundreds of participants to engage in voluntary archaeology activities in their local area.

The feedback from participants who took part in this entirely new activity, in countries where there is no established tradition of participative community archaeology, was 100% positive – showing the popularity of these activities – and showed similar wellbeing impacts to the UK volunteers.

Dr Carenza Lewis, Professor for the Public Understanding of Research at University of Lincoln, said “The robust new evidence from these different but related research projects across four countries shows that participative community archaeology and heritage volunteering can be transnationally both popular and beneficial to people and places.

“In the UK, community archaeology is well-established and funded. Thousands take part and we now know more about the wellbeing benefits of this work – which is also hugely beneficial to our heritage sites.

“Based on UK experience, we wanted to know whether the experience would be similarly positive across Europe, in countries with no long-standing traditions of community archaeology, in communities whose attachment to place has been impacted by recent history, such as war or migration, and where local authorities may be unsupportive.

“We now believe the answer to this is ‘yes’ and we hope that this research will encourage further participation in community archaeology across Europe.”

Further information about the two projects can be found here (HARAW) and here (CARE MSoC).