The Museum's volunteer programme encourages people of all ages and walks of life to play an active role in the day-to-day activities of the Museum.

We currently have 60 volunteers who help as guides, shop assistants, teachers, gardeners and collection assistants.

Volunteer Projects:

We have recently completed a succesful volunteer project called 'Building Bridges', ‘Building Bridges’ was an inter-generational volunteer project that targeted young unemployed people in Manchester. The project ran from July 2012 to April 2013.

The project recruited young unemployed people to work alongside the Museum’s current volunteers to develop new skills and gain confidence working with the public. New young volunteers ‘buddied-up’ with older volunteers and were trained to work in the Museum shop, guide visitors around the Museum and work in the Museum garden.

The project aimed to make a difference to the community in three main ways: giving people better chances in life, building stronger communities and making people healthier and more active.

• 10 young unemployed people were recruited to the museum. 20% of the participants were long term unemployed and all were looking for new skills, experiences and training to help them find employment.

• 6 young people successfully completed a diploma in employability with additional     customer service modules. This training was run in partnership with Salford College who funded and accredited the qualifications.

• In-house training courses were run for 6 more young people to teach them about the history of the Jewish community, the museum itself and communication skills.

• 100% participants said that the project had improved how they felt about their future and improved their own self confidence.

• Following the training 20% of the young people moved into employment, 40% moved onto further training and 40% joined the volunteer team at the museum. These volunteers spent time shadowing our current volunteers and working with visitors to the museum. This gave the participants a new found confidence and valuable work experiences.

A full project evaluation report can be found here.

If you would like more information about volunteering at MJM email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or call 0161 834 9879.