Our findings

Our research discovered that community archives make a number of distinct impacts.

Impact 1:  cultural capital gains

Cultural resources used for personal and community development have been described as ‘cultural capital.’

Our research shows that community archives make a significant contribution to cultural capital.

And community archives do this in a way that isn’t usually observed in the mainstream heritage sector.

• Young and old people meet and work closely together, developing a sense of mutual respect
• Heritage and history are re-balanced in favour of under-voiced communities
• Activities bring about a sense of belonging

Once people are engaged with community archives, they have the opportunity to meet and work with others. Working alongside others from a variety of backgrounds like this can create community cohesion and, potentially, stronger and safer communities, as a result.

Among the participants in community archive activities are many who do not traditionally engage with the community or with organised heritage projects.

Having said this, our research found that community archives complement rather than compete with the work of established heritage organisations, such as museums and record offices.

Heritage bodies and community archives benefit from working together and in partnership, respecting and celebrating their different approaches to the same goals.

For example, we found that that participants in the Northamptonshire Black History project have been able to discover the histories and personal accounts of Northamptonshire’s black communities and individuals over a period of 500 years.

This required black and ethnic community groups to organise their records into archives and make them available in the county record office.  This was a strongly self-affirming action which provided an opportunity for empowerment as well as participation.

Another project, this time in the RhonddaValley, showed the various social and economic forces that have shaped the area over a century.

Our research shows how, by engaging with this study, young people came to understand how people in their own community have been affected by these changes.

This understanding has helped the young to feel more strongly rooted in their community, improved their confidence and made them more outward-looking.

Older people also benefit from projects that involve several generations of people.  We found that by working on oral history projects, older people feel validated and less afraid of younger people.

Our case studies on Northampton black history, Tonypandy in the Rhondda Valley, Eastside Community Heritage in Newham, east London and the Wise archive, set up in Norfolk to collect older people’s experiences of working life, are examples of such projects.

And in the My Brighton and Hove community archive project, users were able to develop a website to find out about the lives of others, including socially excluded people such as the homeless.

Impact 2: more attractive communities

Our research found some support for the idea that participation in community archives can improve the ‘livability’ of an area, by bringing into focus factors which make a place more interesting and tolerable to live in.  A sense of social companionship may lead to the perception of improved safety in an area.

In one of our case studies, the community archive group in Winkleigh, Devon, proposed a new, income-generating use for a run-down listed building that would otherwise have been closed by the council.

Here, community-driven refurbishment helped to improve the attractiveness of a place by preserving a historic building.

Impact 3: opportunities for lifelong learning

Community archives provide people with significant opportunities for learning.

For example, over the last six years, the My Brighton and Hove community archive has given 300 people the opportunity to acquire skills and experience in using digital technology.

This is how the Eastside (London Borough of Newham) community archive project described what they discovered about lifelong learning opportunities:

“The project has trained people in cataloguing and provided volunteers…with a wider knowledge of…national, community and local history.

People have been trained in transcription, scanning and other IT skills.  Staff and volunteers have learned negotiating skills, honed though working with diverse groups.”

Many of the skills learned by participating in community archives are transferable.  Computer technology, research and interviewing skills are good examples, and our survey even revealed an opportunity for training in building surveying.

Impact 4: community activities

Community archives are dynamic organisations. Their activities engage groups in all sectors of the community.

The participants in our survey listed the following activities in order of popularity:

• exhibitions
• collecting sessions
• community events
• workshops and meetings
• publishing
• hosting school visits
• campaigning

Other activities include arranging community walks, film shows, going into residential and sheltered accommodation and textile projects.

More impacts: community archives in their own words

Our research shows that community archives use a number of key words and values to describe their impacts and values.  We list them here in order of popularity:

• learning new skills
• promoting archives and history
• bringing community closer
• ‘able to contribute’
• community pride and identity
• ‘older people valued’
• learning about history.