IAA project type: Networking grant
Duration of project: October 2023 to March 2024
Partner organisation: Valence House Museum
MOLA staff leading IAA project: Cat Gibbs
Project aims
Building on existing contacts and reaching out to new organisations we will create a network that can support and maintain a youth heritage group to continue a legacy of placemaking. We'll engage young people with their local heritage and develop key life skills including team working, time management, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
Audiences
- Young people from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Project plan
This project will provide a legacy to the community excavation at Valence House (VH) in 2022, which demonstrated an appetite for meaningful and practical youth engagement with local heritage. While there are several heritage groups in the area, none are open to, or targeted at, local young people.
Working in partnership with VH we will reach out to local youth organisations to create a Network of partners aged 14-18 who will be empowered to develop, co-ordinate and establish an active and inclusive Youth Heritage Group (YHG) for the area. The Network will identify barriers to current engagement activities, enabling the YHG to explore the legacy of MOLA and VH projects, taking an active part in the development, interpretation and advocacy for their local heritage with the overall aim of raising pride in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD). Through this project and the YHG, participants will develop key life skills and improved wellbeing.
