Opportunity to Volunteer as a Chinatown Walking Tour Guide in an award-winning team

Would you like to make an impact in London’s Chinatown? Do you love to learn about people and places? Are you a storyteller? Would you like to share your own history of Chinatown with other people? Do you get joy and energy boosts from acts of community service? 

We are recruiting new volunteers to train and serve as History Champion guides for our award winning Chinatown walking tour team.

History Champions lead regular walking tours for members of the public including secondary, Londoners and daytrippers, and visitors from overseas. Through our supportive and extensive training programme, they develop a strong understanding of the layers of Chinatown’s heritage; stories of people, place and memory;  the connections between their own lived experience, Chinatown, world history, and social justice; as well as storytelling and guiding techniques.

What do history champions need: 

• Some weekday daytime availability - typically between 1030am-2pm

• To be comfortable to work with groups of people from age 11 upwards from a wide range of backgrounds

• To be able to commit to delivering at least one tour every month

• To be reliable and consistent 

• A commitment to inclusion and social justice, and able to work within the Chinatown Collective volunteering code

• The willingness to learn and help others learn

• To be able to be outdoors in all London weathers for two-three hours at a time

• To be able to commit to a comprehensive training programme

• To be open to reflecting on your own history and connections in Chinatown and sharing them with guests

  
  

You do not need to have any experience of public speaking or guiding skills. Volunteers of all heritage backgrounds are welcome. We provide training to help volunteers reflect on how their own background, perspective, and privilege shape the way they tell Chinatown's stories, including how to be inclusive, respectful, and sensitive when sharing experiences outside their own.

Chinese language skills are useful but not a requirement. 

What do we offer: 

• Extensive high quality training

• Being part of a supportive and enthusiastic established group 

• Lunch or lunch expenses

• Travel expenses (£12 daily maximum) 

• Enrichment opportunities to learn more about Chinatown, heritage making, community building and social justice throughout the year

This is not the programme for you if:

• You are not available to volunteer at least once a month on a regular basis or if you are only available at weekends and evenings

• You want the training but not to do the volunteering afterwards on an ongoing basis

• You have no curiosity about or personal connection to London’s Chinatown

• You do not want to lead a group of people on a walking tour

  
  

We take our volunteer training seriously. We want to provide a memorable, safe and engaging experience for visitors to Chinatown. It costs between £600-£700 to train each History Champion and it is a big commitment for both our organisation and the trainee History Champions. 

Training involves attending and participating in four in-person training days, two online evening sessions, and one in person evening session.  As well as these live sessions, you will be provided with four recorded history lectures, and a reading pack. You will need to make time to use these learning tools to build your understanding between March-May. 

During May, you will need to make time for practice sessions and working with fellow volunteers to test and experience different tour content. This is self-organised and we’ll support you to do it.  

Here are the training dates:

March 21-22 - in person weekend, Chinatown and East London

Saturday 21 March 1030-1600

Sunday 22 March 1030-1530

Thursday 2 April 18:30-19:30 - online session

Thursday 16 April 18:30-19:30 - online session

April 25-26 - in person weekend, Chinatown and Soho

Saturday 25 April 1030-1630

Sunday 26 April 1030-1500

April - May: Self-directed study - four pre-recorded one hour history lectures and a reading pack   (audio version also available)

Self-directed practise working with other volunteers

Saturday 6 June - 15:30-20:30- in person session  (includes celebration dinner for completing the training programme), Chinatown

Interested? Send us one of the following to apply before 12noon on Monday 9 March:

An email statement to hello@chinatowncollective.london

A video statement (maximum 2 minutes), or

An audio submission (MP3 or WAV; maximum 2 minutes)

Your application should address the following questions:

1) What motivates you to volunteer as a Chinatown History Champion?

 2) What connections do you have to London's Chinatown? 

3) This role involves ongoing learning and reflection. Can you share an example of how you've committed to a volunteer role or learning process in the past?

We will then arrange a follow up call with you. 

Interested but unsure about applying? Email us and we’ll set up a call for you to ask questions. hello@chinatowncollective.london