UEA Research for Community Heritage Ideas Bank: Realising Your Idea

The UEA Ideas Bank project will allow a range of community groups across the east of England who have been awarded an All Our Stories grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to access academic expertise in heritage, landscape history and archaeology, literature and art history at the University of East Anglia. This builds on our success during the first phase of the project, and we will work closely with our partners across a range of time periods and themes. Community groups will receive tailored advice from a member of the research team on their specific needs and projects, as well as accessing a variety of skills-based training sessions offered by the University of East Anglia on a range of topics, such as copyright, the use of digital media, database management and similar themes.

Our proposal will make a significant impact within those communities where we will be directly supporting All Our Stories projects. Following on from the postive impact of our Phase 1 project, the Ideas Bank, communities will continue to benefit in practical ways by having the opportunity to utilise the expertise that is available from researchers at the UEA and from our community partners. Our project will help to build a greater sense of place at a highly localised level, ensuring that community identity and heritage does not become obscured by the ever pressing demands of coping with the current economic climate and in fact, takes its rightful place in encouraging community cohesion and resilience for the future. All Our Stories projects will have the opportunity to work closely with academic researchers in relevant subject areas at the UEA during the course of their projects. They will benefit directly from the advice and expertise of researchers from schools across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Community University Engagement office, as well as a tailored training programme of workshops to support their activities in a broader sense.

Alongside those directly involved in delivering All Our Stories project, the wider public will also benefit from the proposal. This is particularly true of those communities within which an All Our Stories project is taking place, but where the research is being carried out by a small group such as a local history society. Those members of the community which attend events, participate in some elements of the research, or which make use of educational packs and other materials created by the All Our Stories projects will be benefitting from the expertise and advice fed into those projects by the research team at the UEA.

Our community partners will have the opportunity to, for example, enhance their learning and development programme for staff and volunteers e.g. building research and project management skills. They will also be able to deepen their understanding of the UEA's research expertise in community heritage and to build on their existing community relationships. In particular, our partners will be encouraged to develop new community partnerships centred on HLF funded projects that uncover as yet unexplored community heritage and narratives.

The impact of the research and the various outputs produced by All Our Stories projects and informed by the research team will also have an impact upon the professional heritage sector. Datasets incorporating census and archival material, collections of old photographs and oral history recordings can all be fed into the collections and resources of local museums and record offices. Any archaeological data collected as part of these project will be submitted to the local Historic Environment Record in the relevant county, where it can be accessed by researchers, the general public, local planning teams and developers.

Our use of online media, including a blog, e-newsletters and various downloadable resources, will be of particular importance in disseminating the results of the overarching Ideas Bank project, as well as the achievements of each All Our Stories project. We will be able to highlight events, training opportunities and examples of best practice to any individual or group interested in community heritage. Community groups across the UK, who are interested in their heritage will be able to access these resources, regardless of whether they have successfully been granted Heritage Lottery Funding under the All Our Stories scheme.

Professor Rob Walker of the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the UEA will carry out a detailed impact evaluation of our project, including the collation and analysis of feedback gathered from the project blog and events. He will also carry out detailed interviews and evaluation with the AoS projects that we will be directly supporting.