Our conclusions

This first study of the impact of community archives demonstrates that community archives can promote understanding, tolerance and respect between generations and between diverse social, ethnic and cultural communities. They may promote active citizenship, often among people who might otherwise feel marginalised within society, and they can provide informal training in technical and life-skills.

Communities that have undergone rapid and sometimes traumatic change often feel overlooked, if not abandoned.  Community archives may create a new sense of pride and interest in those places.

There is still a lot we need to learn about this movement. Many existing heritage organisations have yet to come to grips with community archives and many existing community structures have yet to recognise their value and potential.

Yet it is already clear that community archives are growing in number and confidence and that they have a valuable part to play.

Time and again, community archives demonstrate their self-sufficiency and enterprise.  A helping hand at the beginning, in the shape of a grant or award, may be repaid many times over.  There are benefits to the individuals who participate, to the groups learning the skills and means of working together, and to the wider communities they represent.

Community archives have no desire to be dependent.  Yet by recognising the value of what community archives are achieving, formal agencies can help to ensure a future for a movement which, across the country, is quietly but definitely playing a part in bringing people and communities together.