404: How One Zoo Reimagined Engagement Through the Pandemic
Pandemic lockdowns did nothing to limit the ways the one zoo embraced innovative community engagement and program excellence initiatives. In this episode, Lindsay Marston, Volunteer Manager at the Chester Zoo, shares some of the ways they kept moving ahead against the odds.
Guest Bio
Lindsay Marston
Volunteer Manager
Chester Zoo (North of England Zoological Society)
Lindsay joined Chester Zoo's Conservation Education and Engagement team in 2019 to manage their award-winning volunteer team. She's worked in the UK charity sector for over 15 years, managing volunteers and working with children and young people. The zoo's volunteer management team successfully engages volunteers in various roles, including visitor engagement, youth volunteering, gardening, archiving, education, community engagement and micro-volunteering.
Chester Zoo achieved the Investing in Volunteers quality standard award in 2021; the award highlights their commitment to providing a high-quality volunteering experience. Chester Zoo's Plan for Volunteering highlights how volunteers contribute to key targets in the Conservation Masterplan, which aims to empower 10 million people to live more sustainably before the zoo’s 100th birthday in 2031.
Show Notes
The Chester Zoo introduced a range of micro-volunteering activities alongside their traditional roles to engage the community in conservation action and volunteering in various ways from citizen science projects from home using motion sensor cameras in people's gardens to discover Hedgehog habits to digital roles such as writing subtitles, researching and checking data to responding to letters from school children and school groups when they wrote to the zoo.
At the same time, the Chester Zoo embarked on attaining their Investing in Volunteers quality standard, which requires documenting and improving practices in volunteer engagement. True to their community roots, they involved volunteers in helping frame their work during their credentialing process.
In this conversation, Lindsay shares her philosophy on engaging stakeholders in the Zoo’s process and how they focus on person-centered volunteer engagement. She also described how they maintained connections with volunteers through social events and coffee mornings, which has led to high volunteer re-engagement and retention.
Learn more about the Chester Zoo here:
Chester Zoo on Twitter @chesterzoo
Chester Zoo Learning Page - https://twitter.com/LearnatCZ
Chester Zoo on LInkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/chester-zoo/mycompany/
Chester Zoo Website - https://www.chesterzoo.org/
You can reach Lindsay on LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-marston-59804453/
For more on the Investing in Volunteers quality standard, visit - https://investinginvolunteers.co.uk/
For More
For more on how organizations were managing during the pandemic in the UK, check out Time + Talent Podcast Episode 307: Connecting with Volunteers During Times of Change