On 3rd September Eastern ARC held their Harnessing Heritage conference at University of East Anglia, in Norwich. This one day conference explored how to identify ways that universities, regional and national organisations, and local communities can work together for the benefit of all and to safeguard future prosperity.

Community360 (C360) were invited to host a break out at the session Conference. Louise Willsher (C360) alongside Dr Arianna Mazzieri (Community Asset Researcher) and Dr Alix Green (University of Essex) co-created the session Collect Histories, Building Archives, Produce Social Change.

Since 2017, C360 has worked in partnership with University of Essex to collect oral histories and record the lived experiences of volunteers and community organisers, including rapid response collecting during COVID-19. C360 is now working with local partners to co-produce a community archive of the voluntary and community sector, run by and for the people of Colchester. The archive aims at celebrating the richness of work done when communities come together, which is often unseen or lost, connecting people with their communities and, thereby, positively impacting on their wellbeing.

The session offered a collaborative learning space to champion innovative ways to show the impact on social wellbeing produced by heritage projects, and to used them to influence public policy making. Through a blend of facilitated discussion and group work, the session adopted a participatory approach to exploring practices that maximise the visibility and impact of the voluntary sector on effecting social change and improving local lives, prompting discussion and collaboration by posing thought-provoking questions and sharing audio-visual materials from C360’s oral archive.

The attendees were able to learn from a rich experience of knowledge sharing with a varied audience — including researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and business people — enabling them to  pick up the best heritage-related practices to influence decision making in the public sector and improve communities’ wellbeing.

A community archive is run by and for the community. It can hold all kinds of things that the community values, such interviews with local volunteers, information about a charity’s work or photographs of important local campaigns and events. If you’re interested in contributing to shaping what Colchester’s own archive of the voluntary and community sector looks like, then please contact Arianna by calling 01206 505250 or emailing ariannamazzieri@community360.org.uk