“Connecting Small Histories reached a significant milestone with our Volunteer Launch on 29 June via Zoom.
Bringing together the project team and interested participants from 5 of our 6 target centres, the evening – compered with great panache by Carter – featured brief presentations on the background and aims of the project from Ed, an outline of why heritage can come in different forms by Sarah, and some ‘nuggets’ of history from each of our 6 locations from Trish.
Breaking into smaller groups, it was clear that heritage is already ‘out there’, from published community histories, to personal and community memories, family members who had served in official roles, to personal archives of documents, and the thriving Facebook page of the Sunderland community. For many, their sense of belonging to a small community survived long after moving away from its location, a theme they wanted to feature in the project. For the student volunteers present, the evening introduced them to some of those they will be working alongside to build our heritage hub and create a memorable History Festival in March 2021.
For the project team, the evening stimulated some great conversations that we’re keen to continue.
So we’ll be keeping in touch over the coming weeks.
If you would like to get involved why not email the team at heritage@jscn.org.ukwith the subject line ‘Volunteer’?
