We are happy to announce an exciting project, Something About Us, funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and based in Worksop. Working with young people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group W.O.W in Worksop, the project aims to research and record what it was like historically to be LBGT in the past compared to the present-day, with a focus on the local area.
The project is providing training in archive research skills, oral history techniques and filmmaking skills, providing an opportunity for these LGBT young people to have a voice and to share the history they have found with their wider community to aid a more beneficial understanding of the LGBT community locally. The young people are producing a documentary film using their oral history interviews and archive research findings while recording their own on-going reflections of the research process on GoPro cameras to produce a separate reflective film.
Bringing the local hidden stories of the LGBT community to life will make the archive material more accessible in general and in a digital format that other young people in a similar situation can relate to and benefit from.
This project will give the LGBT W.O.W members a voice in their own town and community while helping them as individuals on their own personal journeys as they learn about the experiences of other LGBT people in the past.
We will be working with our partners Nottinghamshire Rainbow Heritage, an organisation that celebrates Nottinghamshire’s LGBT lives, hidden history and culture. NRH organise events: exhibitions; displays; workshops and training, gather artifacts memorabilia and audio and video recordings of LGBT people’s experiences and opinions.
Commenting on the award, Managing Director of E.D.E.N, Claire Watkinson said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are confident the project will support young people learn about LGBT History while also developing their historical and creative skills.”
W.O.W Youth Worker, Claire Bradley, said: “This will be a great experience for the young people. It will be important for them to understand and learn about their history, heritage and that of the wider LGBT community. It will be something that stays with them forever.”
