Cambridge Collaborations for Community Heritage

The Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Institute of Continuing Education and Public Engagement team at the University of Cambridge plan to collaborate to network with new and existing community and voluntary sector contacts to bring academic researchers together with external contacts to develop joint projects to generate new knowledge and knowledge exchange in local and regional heritage. The team will organise web pages, publicity to the local and regional voluntary heritage sector, two open days in June 2012 and follow-up workshops to develop research and dissemination projects.

The project will build on existing contacts of the Access Cambridge Archaeology team, members of the Heritage Research Group, and Institute of Continuing Education Local History researchers and introduce 10 researchers to new community contacts in East Anglia. With administrative support, publicity will be circulated to 100 local community groups and local historical societies already in contact with the groups represented in the bid, and a minimum further 50 groups identified through research and contacts with Heritage Lottery Fund and NCCPE.

A briefing and training workshop will be organised for the 10 researchers involved in the Cambridge Community Heritage project, led by the Principal Investigator with input from a local history society representative. Planning and co-ordination of the project will be led by the PI with support from a member of Access Cambridge Archaeology staff and the Head of Public Engagement at the University. Contacts will be made with Heritage Lottery Fund during the planning stage in order to ensure that the networking activities online and in person meet the needs of groups applying to HLF for community heritage research projects.

Webpages and social media presence will be created for the Cambridge Community Heritage project, along with a publicity strategy supported by the Office of External Affairs and Communications and the Public Engagement team within that. The contact database of 150 local history and community sector organisations for the project will be drawn together through existing contacts, research and HLF input.

Two open days will be planned for May/June 2012. One would be in Cambridge with video-conferencing available, and the other in a village on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, which has been identified through prior contact, to facilitate access to those in the eastern part of the target region who are interested in attending.

Both open days would follow the same format. All attendees (researchers and community representatives) would be asked to register in advance and would be pre-circulated with information about all attendees' interests and reasons for attending. Attendees would be encouraged to bring material for display (posters, finds, books, DVDs etc) relating to their activities and areas of interest to the open days. The open days would include 'speed-dating' introducing the researchers to the community contacts to elicit areas of potential mutual interest.

After the open days, feedback will be collected from all attendees. Information on the event will be shared with potentially interested contacts who were unable to attend. Collaborating researchers and community groups will be encouraged to use e-mail, blogs, facebook page, telephone calls and meetings to maintain contact and actively develop ideas for projects which could be funded. The PI will provide advice regarding project development as required through June-September 2012. A follow-up workshop will be held in Cambridge in September/October 2012, when each collaborative partnership will report on progress in developing activities which can bid for HLF funding.

The Cambridge Community Heritage project aims to have its primary impact with the voluntary and community sector, with a secondary impact on the public and schools.

There will be academic impacts, which include innovation around co-creation of research questions and the creation of collaborative research projects which can apply for AHRC and HLF funding. The researchers involved will gain experience, knowledge and skills of further interaction with community contacts in a sustained and focused way which will inform their future practice.

The social and economic impacts will be in the fields of cultural enrichment and enhancing the vibrancy of the community heritage sector in East Anglia. History and archaeology of communities have proved to be topics which have brought together generations and the interest of a wide range of groups in local communities, enhancing quality of life and well-being. The project can boost social cohesion and regeneration in communities through developing high-quality heritage research and dissemination projects which can apply for funding.

Impact activities will include the outreach communications with 150 voluntary and community sector contacts, with a member of staff spending time on preparing and sending out communications including the use of social media. The two open day activities and follow-up contacts and workshop will all focus on impact with community sector contacts. A media communications plan will be prepared and delivered in conjunction with the Office of External Affairs and Communications.

Public and schools impacts will be secondary impacts, as they will be enhanced through partnerships formed through researcher/ community networking. The Cambridge Community Heritage project will be showcased through Cambridge Science Festival and Cambridge Festival of Ideas activity, with more outcomes to communicate in the 2013 events.

Feedback will be sought after the open days to gather information on how the project is achieving impacts, and a survey sent to community contacts as the funding period concludes, to gather evidence on impacts.