Leeds Older People’s Forum (LOPF) has been awarded a grant of £103,817 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help save and secure the heritage of Leeds for the future.
The People’s History of Leeds (PHOL) will tell the story of the city through the voices of its citizens who have lived through it. The project will use the collection of Leeds Museums & Galleries as a conversation starter and will gather and share the stories of older and younger people in the city.
Building on the success of Shine Magazine, which has been gathering older people’s stories since 2020, LOPF is now able to start a new heritage project.
The PHOL uses new ways of working to identify, capture and share at-risk oral heritage with a more diverse audience – preserving these unique voices and life stories for future generations.
The project will connect with older people from the diverse communities of Leeds to:
- Preserve stories that capture and illustrate the rich tapestry of people’s lives
- Support older people to feel connected, be heard and feel part of something big
- Enable older writers to develop their skills and help shape the project.
The project will be coordinated by Mojo Creative, where Tom Bailey and Rob Pritchard have the skills and creativity to bring the project to life, as they did with Shine Magazine in partnership with LOPF.
Mojo Creative will recruit and train a team of older citizens to collect stories and experiences from people in diverse Leeds communities. These older volunteer writers will also work with young volunteers from Leeds Museums. Together, they will adopt a ‘citizen journalist’ approach, seeking out and collecting previously untold tales within our communities and uncovering some of the remarkable voices of Leeds.
The project will visit older people’s support groups, care homes, shopping centres, libraries and community settings across the city to showcase objects from Leeds Museums in order to inspire heritage conversations. These conversations will be captured and recorded to be shared widely amongst the people of Leeds. There will be a range of pop-up exhibitions of stories that will travel all over the city, from busy high streets to community events, where the public will be invited to contribute their own stories.
The project will culminate in the production of two free booklets of stories that will be distributed across the city to share the heritage stories with all sections of the Leeds community.
Linda Glew from Leeds Older People’s Forum said:
“We are thrilled to have received this support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, the voices of the people of Leeds will be captured in story form and shared across the city. It is a really exciting project!”
To get involved by becoming a citizen journalist or if you have a story to share, contact the project co-ordinator, Tom Bailey via email at tom@mojofilm.co.uk
This post is based on a press release issued by the Leeds Older People’s Forum
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