Roots and Futures: Scaling-up and sustaining co-produced, placed-based heritage with marginalised communities in heritage policy and decision-making
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Archaeology
Abstract
Roots and Futures is a collaborative partnership between community enterprises, heritage organisations and academics which has explored the place-based heritage of Sheffield's industrial heartland. Since 2020, we have been working with Sheffield's Pakistani, Yemeni and Somali communities to share memories and stories and explore themes and priorities for the city's heritage. The project has shown a deep appreciation for the significance of the past in building a sense of belonging, but reliance on white, northern heritage narratives has created barriers to engagement with traditional heritage-focused spaces and activities. A community-expressed need for greater knowledge of the past is rooted in a shared sense of place at the neighbourhood scale, a desire for more personalised and diverse stories of Sheffield's past and access to more creative ways of engaging with the past embedded within familiar landscapes.
This project will devise and explore routes to realise these community-expressed needs, embedding learning from Roots and Futures via new partnerships with regional decision makers in local government and heritage strategy. It will critically engage with issues of support and sustainability in community-centred place-based heritage, connect key stakeholders in city governance with new audiences by sharing extant data and brokering new partnerships, and test a model for community-centred research in heritage embedded within extant urban governance structures. The inclusion of diverse and representative community voices in local governance is a challenge affecting all decision-makers, however Sheffield's position as City of Sanctuary uniquely recognises the need to embrace the growing diversity of our cities. Sheffield is also the first city in England where a voluntary organisation has published a community-led heritage strategy, thereby offering the ideal crucible for a project which can also be replicated in the future in other cities.
This project will devise and explore routes to realise these community-expressed needs, embedding learning from Roots and Futures via new partnerships with regional decision makers in local government and heritage strategy. It will critically engage with issues of support and sustainability in community-centred place-based heritage, connect key stakeholders in city governance with new audiences by sharing extant data and brokering new partnerships, and test a model for community-centred research in heritage embedded within extant urban governance structures. The inclusion of diverse and representative community voices in local governance is a challenge affecting all decision-makers, however Sheffield's position as City of Sanctuary uniquely recognises the need to embrace the growing diversity of our cities. Sheffield is also the first city in England where a voluntary organisation has published a community-led heritage strategy, thereby offering the ideal crucible for a project which can also be replicated in the future in other cities.
Organisations
| Title | Roots and Futures project blog |
| Description | A blog documenting the project from its inception and including the work undertaking during the AHRC funded period |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The blog has been visited 677 views from 288 unique users |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/roots-and-futures/blog |
| Title | The Black Ladies' Group Oral History Project |
| Description | A collaborative publication with and for Manor and Castle Black Women's Group sharing oral histories and stories from the womens' lives. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The Black Ladies' Group have been invited to contribute their oral histories and personally participate in Sheffield Museums Windrush Anniversary exhibition in 2023. |
| Description | This project delivered its objective to build strong partnerships with organisations whose members have been underserved by hertiage policy and practice. It did this by developing and testing an equitable method of collaborative working based on participatory action research. The particulars of this approach have been collated into a project toolkit, offering support and advice for researchers and community groups. The project developed a strong relationship with policymakers through its partnership with Sheffield City Council. It created a policy-maker facing action plan, which is being communicated in person to key stakeholders in the city at present. It has achieved new routes for dialogue with elected members, and support for the overall aims of the wider project - to provide a platform for the views of underserved communities in heritage strategy in the city. These foundations are being taken forward in the next stage of the project. |
| Exploitation Route | The project toolkit will share our methodological findings online. These offer an approach for others seeking to engage equitably in conversation with communities about their heritage and its representation. The combined evidence from community consultations held with our community partners may be utilised in their own advocacy work The combined evidence from community consultations held with out community partners may be used by policy and strategy-makers in Sheffield and elsewhere to improve their heritage offer for underserved communities. The activities we have created may be used by community organisations and schools in their own work to explore identity and cultural heritage. This work has the potential to contribute to wellbeing programmes and generate positive health and wellbeing outcomes for individuals |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/roots-and-futures/home |
| Description | The initial findings of Roots and Futures have supported Joined Up Heritage Sheffield to secure adoption of their Heritage Strategy for Sheffield (2021-31) by Sheffield City Council. To this point the city had no heritage strategy. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Adoption of JUHS heritage strategy by City Council |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | QR-Policy Support Fund |
| Amount | £47,404 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 07/2023 |
| Title | Roots and Futures project toolkit - equitable working with community partners |
| Description | The toolkit summarises and shares learning resulting from approaches to equitable community engagement trialed and tested by the project work. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None as yet |
| Description | Roots and Futures community partners |
| Organisation | Heeley City Farm |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Management of the Roots and Futures community partners was undertaken by the academic research team. We organised consultation events with their members, collated data and reported back our findings. We met every month of the funding period to share progress, updated and feedback. The data we have generated together will be used to advocate for greater inclusion of this community in the city's heritage strategy and policy and their views shared with policy- and strategy-makers. |
| Collaborator Contribution | All partners contributed to co-design of the project and co-production of its outcomes, provided venues for consultation and facilitated engagement with their communities for the project. Our core project output, the toolkit, will be a collaborative document. |
| Impact | Our partners have collaborated on all Roots and Futures outputs as part of a co-produced project design |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Roots and Futures community partners |
| Organisation | Sheffield And District African Caribbean Community Association |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Management of the Roots and Futures community partners was undertaken by the academic research team. We organised consultation events with their members, collated data and reported back our findings. We met every month of the funding period to share progress, updated and feedback. The data we have generated together will be used to advocate for greater inclusion of this community in the city's heritage strategy and policy and their views shared with policy- and strategy-makers. |
| Collaborator Contribution | All partners contributed to co-design of the project and co-production of its outcomes, provided venues for consultation and facilitated engagement with their communities for the project. Our core project output, the toolkit, will be a collaborative document. |
| Impact | Our partners have collaborated on all Roots and Futures outputs as part of a co-produced project design |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Roots and Futures policy partners |
| Organisation | Sheffield City Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The Roots and Futures team have been generating evidence to inform SCC's understanding of under-served communities perspectives regarding the city's heritage, their needs, priorities and perspectives. Our research expertise and management of the partnership has facilitated the generation of this valuable information. |
| Collaborator Contribution | SCC has connected Roots and Futures to heritage policymaking in the city, facilitating meetings with key groups and elected members. SCC have enabled the work to be designed in ways that will benefit the city. |
| Impact | All reported outputs are collaborative works with SCC input. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Discovery conversations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The discovery conversations invited Sheffield heritage policy-makers, heritage industry professionals and charitable and 3rd sector professionals to discuss the context of heritage strategy and policy in Sheffield, explore their current stage of awareness and understanding of the needs of under-served communities, how they could act to improve this in their work area and how the Roots and Futures project could generate findings that would be most effective at influencing those with power to direct the city's approaches to heritage. 100% of 13 attendees who evaluated the activity rated the event excellent or good and learned more about the Roots and Futures project. All indicated they would change their professional behaviour or act directly as a result of this conversation to: consult the city's heritage strategy, reach out to more communities in their work area, consider how they manage a dialogue with communities and continue to support Roots and Futures. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Evaluation and celebration workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This evaluation and celebration event supported a showcase of Sheffield-based heritage organisations and projects, offering project partners, participants and the general public a chance to hear about the project's findings, each others work and make valuable connections. The evaluation feedback indicated that partners wanted to: Continue their engagement and expand on it during the next phase (more stories being told). Focus on working with young people in the communities in a way where they take ownership of their culture in meaningful and relevant ways (eg, supporting paid opportunities for young people involved in cultural activities especially for marginalised communities) Involve and invite community members for such celebration activities and workshops in addition to the partner organisation managers More diverse communities and faces in the project (reaching out to other members and communities as part of the project in addition to the familiar faces) Focus on building relationships with educational partners or schools to be able to reach young people from very early on and influence curriculum and policy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Findings and priorities workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | At this workshop the project partners and participants from partner community organsations discussed the findings of the consultations with communities undertaken by the Roots and Futures project. We co-created a set of thematic outcomes, refined their wording to ensure clarity and inclusive language, discuss what needed to change to see each theme progress such that under-served communities could be better represented and discussed the stakeholders who held power and responsibility to make these changes. This work enabled the project team to take forward a co-created set of priority themes from our work, impacting the structure of our final reports and choice about future directions for the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/roots-and-futures/blog |
| Description | Meeting with elected members |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Roots and Futures project was introduced to elected members with responsibilities for heritage and culture in Sheffield. We were invited to return and present the findings at a future time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Migration Matters: Discovery Conversations 2 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The second iteration of our Discovery Conversations replicated the activities undertaken at the first, extending the audience to participants at the 2022 Migration Matters festival. This event reached engaged members of the general public, community workers, free-lance heritage specialists and creatives, among others. We learned the aspects of Sheffield's heritage valued by participants included local arts and culture, the natural environment, and the diversity and friendliness of its people. However, there are issues with translating these valuable assets into inclusive heritage policy. Barriers to inclusivity include access to resources, funding structures, and a lack of continuity and clear policy direction. Heritage policy should be driven from the grassroots. 100% of 9 evaluation responses rated the event excellent. Participants reported the workshop would impact how the developed a research project, a community project, encourage them to engage more closely with community groups in their area and follow the work of the Roots and Futures project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |