Creating Community Archives

Creating Community Archives, a collaboration between Safe Ground and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, used WW2 archive materials to encourage older adults, young offenders and young people at risk of offending to discuss and compare their experiences. The project was a huge success, with the themes of ‘Separation’ and ‘Going Without’ proving particularly fertile ground for unearthing stories to share.

Click here to download a poem written by a Creating Community Archives participant.

Although the project has now ended, participants’ testimonies suggest it will have a lasting impact upon those involved.

“The journey down memory lane was of great value to me personally and I hope the young men from Deerbolt were able to draw some measure of how family life and all it holds, some good some bad, are important in making the character we establish for ourselves in later life, and the lessons we should learn from that experience”

- John Inskipp

A case study with further information about the project is available here.

Project participants sharing special objects