An insight into Voluntary Services | MY staff stories

Hello, my name is…

Dani Norman

What is your job title and where are you based?

Head of Voluntary Services and Work Experience, Trust wide.

What does your role involve?

I lead the Voluntary Services and Work Experience teams at MYTT. My role involves overseeing our volunteering programmes, supporting over 400 volunteers, and creating opportunities for people from all backgrounds to get involved in the Trust.

A key part of my role is supporting colleagues across MYTT to involve volunteers in their work. This includes helping teams design and develop meaningful volunteer roles that add real value to services, while also creating a positive and rewarding experience for volunteers.

I am also responsible for our volunteer-run services, including our team of Hospital Guides and the two cafés at Dewsbury Hospital.

Alongside this, I oversee the recruitment, training and ongoing support of volunteers, ensuring they feel valued, safe and confident in their roles. I also lead our work experience programmes, helping people gain insight and build pathways into careers in health and social care.

What’s the best thing about your role?

My job is a gift. Representing and advocating for the MYTT volunteers is an absolute privilege, and I take great pride in supporting over 400 individuals and everything they bring to our organisation.

Our colleagues are incredibly grateful for the contribution volunteers make, giving over 40,000 hours of their time in 2025/26 alone. That impact is huge.

I also love meeting our volunteers and hearing their stories, what skills they bring and what has inspired them to give their time.

I work with a fantastic team of nine colleagues, and I really enjoy supporting them through challenges. No two days are the same, we regularly deal with unexpected situations, which keeps us on our toes. I love working together to find solutions, always keeping our volunteers as individuals at the centre of our decisions.

Is there an aspect of your work that makes you most proud?

I am passionate about making volunteering and work experience accessible to everyone. Creating inclusive opportunities is central to our values and vital for our local community.

Volunteering can be a safe space for people who are not yet ready for employment, a place to build confidence, develop skills and grow. I feel incredibly proud when I see people facing real barriers find their place within the organisation and thrive.

MYTT has a strong legacy of involving young people. With my background in youth work, I’ve been able to bring together our work experience and volunteering offer to create a growing community of young people progressing into education and careers in health and social care.

It’s inspiring to see volunteers of all ages working alongside each other, growing in confidence and developing into their roles. You can genuinely see the difference. People often leave standing “two feet taller.”

Some of those young people return to us during holidays, and we love hearing about their journeys. I often joke that one day I’ll be in a hospital bed and realise I’m being cared for by someone who started with us as a volunteer, and that makes me incredibly proud.

It isn’t easy to deliver youth volunteering at scale, but we’re not just succeeding, we’re excelling.

How did you get into your role?  

I have over 20 years’ experience working with volunteers across a range of organisations.

I began my career with one of the largest volunteer-involving organisations in the UK — the Girl Guides. At the time, I didn’t realise I was learning best practice in volunteer management, working closely alongside volunteers in everything we did. That early experience gave me a really strong foundation and shaped how I approach volunteering today.

From there, I moved into roles within national and local charities, including working as a Volunteering Consultant for a national organisation delivering health-related services. In that role, I often faced two key challenges, encouraging colleagues to involve volunteers in their work, and inspiring people to come forward and volunteer.

At MYTT, things feel very different. I don’t face the same barriers — our colleagues are incredibly welcoming and open to involving volunteers, and I’m constantly responding to new ideas and opportunities to develop what we offer.

Because we focus on creating meaningful, high-quality opportunities, we’re fortunate not to struggle with recruitment, people genuinely want to be part of what we do.

The role is still challenging, but it’s always a joy. We have so many doors open to us and so many opportunities to make a real difference. The challenge is often about prioritising and making the most of those opportunities.

I’ve grown the service from 120 Volunteers post COVID to the 400 we have today by staying focused and developing it step by step, ensuring we build something sustainable and impactful over time.

I also spent several wonderful years at Wakefield Hospice as a fundraiser, working closely with volunteers in the community. That experience deepened my understanding of how important local connection is, people often give their time because of a strong personal link to a place or service, or because they want to feel more connected to their community.

That is why it is so important to me to do this job in a place I feel connected to.

What do you like to do in your own time?

I have two young boys, and I love spending as much time as possible with them, especially camping and being outdoors. MYTT have been so supportive in enabling me to work flexibly while my children are young.

Given the chance, who would you like to be for a day?

I like just being me.

What’s the best holiday you’ve ever been on?

For many years, I led working holidays with the National Trust, staying on-site and volunteering on conservation projects.

I initially got involved because of my youth work background, but it turned out to be some of the most enjoyable volunteering I’ve ever done. Working with motivated Duke of Edinburgh groups was a real highlight.

These experiences shaped my belief in volunteering. I went to give my time, but gained so much in return, lifelong friendships and unforgettable moments, from hiking across Kinder Scout to plant cotton grass to helping build a yurt in Snowdonia.

Volunteering is a two-way gift — you give to others, but you gain so much yourself. It’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about creating more opportunities for people.

People might be surprised to know…

I am proudly dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until I was 10 years old.

Reading and writing are no longer a challenge for me, but my dyslexia is one of my greatest strengths. It helps me think differently, understand people better, and build real connections in my work, which is a real advantage as a volunteer manager, where people are at the heart of everything we do.

To find out more about Dani and the work her team do visit our volunteering page. 

Volunteering