Levenshulme Old Library is a community arts and heritage centre in the heart of Levenshulme. The building is home to creative projects, community groups, performances, workshops, exhibitions and events, welcoming thousands of people through its doors every year.

We’re a tiny charity with a big building and lots happening – and there are always more things we’d like to do than our small staff team can manage alone.

Caretakers and Creatives is our volunteering programme, bringing together people who want to give some of their time, skills or creativity to help look after the Old Library and make things happen here.

You don’t need to make a big commitment or have previous volunteering experience. You might want to come along to an occasional gardening day, help paint a room, contribute your professional skills, photograph an event, help develop a creative project – or simply tell us what you’re good at and let us get in touch when the right opportunity comes along.

The idea is pretty simple: Levenshulme Old Library belongs to its community, and caring for it is something we can do together.

There are three main ways to get involved…

Caretakers

Gardening, painting, tidying and practical jobs.

Caretakers help us look after and improve the Old Library and its garden. We’ll organise regular volunteering sessions with a mixture of jobs depending on what needs doing – from gardening and decorating to preparing spaces, cleaning, tidying and light DIY.

You don’t need any particular skills and there’s no expectation that you attend every time. Come when you can and get stuck in. Caretakers and Creatives

Creatives

Meet, share ideas and develop creative projects.

Levenshulme is full of creative people, and we’d like more of them to become part of what happens at the Old Library.

That could mean photography or filmmaking, helping with an exhibition, running a workshop, documenting a project, contributing to community arts activity or working with us to develop something completely new.

We hold Creatives Socials where people can meet each other, find out what’s happening at LOL and talk about ideas and opportunities. 

Skills Bank

Put your particular skills to good use.

You don’t have to attend regular volunteering sessions to help.

We’re also building a Skills Bank – a list of the people who might be able to lend their expertise when we need it. That could include carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, IT, fundraising, legal or professional advice – or something we haven’t thought of.

Tell us what you can do and we’ll get in touch when there’s an opportunity where your skills could make a difference. 

What do I get from volunteering?

We want volunteering at the Old Library to be worthwhile for the people giving their time. It’s a chance to meet people locally, learn and share skills, contribute to your neighbourhood, get involved in creative activity and play an active part in the life of a much-loved community building. 

There’s no single type of LOL volunteer. You can give us an afternoon, come regularly, offer a specialist skill when it’s needed or help us make something happen.

Interested?

Fill in the form below and tell us a little about yourself and how you’d like to get involved.

We’ll add you to our volunteer network and keep you updated about upcoming Caretaker sessions, Creatives socials and other opportunities that might suit you.