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Creating wellbeing in local communities through a MOLA-SAfH Collaboration

IAA project type: Networking grant

Duration of project: April - September 2023

Partner organisation: Social Action for Health (SAfH)

MOLA staff leading IAA grant: Dr Kate Faccia

Project aims

Develop a working partnership with SAfH
Create networks with their diverse communities
Learn how MOLA can use its resources to create engaging wellbeing-led programmes for diverse and traditionally underserved communities.

This work will foster future collaboration with SAfH in designing archaeologically-inspired, wellbeing-led interventions in diverse communities.

Audiences

The SAfH community - Community members are some of the most negatively impacted by health inequality in the UK. They have been referred to SAfH due to chronic health conditions.
SAfH - SAfH are a local health charity serving the Tower Hamlets. We will explore new ways to foster wellbeing outcomes for their communities.
MOLA - The project will expand MOLA's impact to new audiences and contribute to delivering and evidencing archaeology's potential to support wellbeing and social value initiatives and outcomes
Archaeological sector - If successful, these consultations will contribute to the growing body of work that is exploring the potential for archaeologically-inspired projects to contribute to individual and community wellbeing, particularly in underserved communities.

Project plan

Developer-led archaeology is conducted behind the hoarding of construction sites, and in the processing facilities and offices of commercial companies. Any public outreach often reaches a particular demographic – older, white, higher educational attainment – whereas developer-led archaeology disproportionately affects lower income and minoritized communities.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon our profession to develop programmes that transform our work into social value, generating positive legacies for communities traditionally underserved by archaeology.

This project begins exploring the impact that archaeologically-inspired engagement can make in diverse communities experiencing multiple indicators of deprivation. Social Action for Health (SAfH) is a health-based charity in Tower Hamlets serving diverse communities experiencing some of the highest levels of health inequality in the UK.

Together we will:

identify three SAfH communities for participation
co-create and co-deliver consultations
lay the groundwork for future archaeologically-inspired and wellbeing-led work with SAfH and their network of communities.

Breaking ground on the IAA project at Delapré Abbey

Delapré Digs: Archaeology for Wellbeing

IAA project type: Partnership grant

Duration of project: August 2023 to February 2024

Partner organisation: Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust (DAPT)

Individual partner: Eleanor Sier, Head of Engagement and Interpretation

Project aims

In partnership with Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust (DAPT) and Northampton General Practice Alliance (GPA), Delapré Digs: Archaeology for Wellbeing aims to create positive well-being impacts for Northampton’s underserved communities through socially prescribed archaeological activity.

The project seeks to establish a long-term mutually beneficial partnership between MOLA and DAPT to deliver long-term wellbeing impacts for Northampton’s communities and meet local health needs and priorities.

Audiences

Approx 12 hyper-local Northampton community members who fit the criteria for social prescribing (i.e. those with low to moderate mental health needs, suffering from loneliness or isolation and/or chronic, long-term health conditions.).
MOLA staff
Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust
Northampton General Practice Alliance
West Northamptonshire Council

Project plan

Archaeology and heritage is increasingly being used as an engagement tool to improve wellbeing of a wide range of audiences across the UK including veterans (Waterloo Uncovered, Operation Nightingale), adult citizens (Archaeology on Prescription) and young people (Project Rejuvenate). Research shows that taking part in archaeological activity can have positive psychological impact through fostered connection with others, increased knowledge, improved confidence and being physically active (e.g. Brizi et al 2023, Everill et al 2020).

At MOLA, we are embarking on a new pilot project at Delapré Abbey to improve the wellbeing of the residents of Northampton using archaeology. Delapré Digs: Archaeology for Wellbeing, in partnership with Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust (DAPT) and Northampton General Practice Alliance (GPA), will see up to twelve Northampton residents referred onto a six week programme of archaeological and creative activities. This will include a range of things such as excavation and finds processing as well as pottery making and artefact illustration. Participants will come together one day a week to learn about archaeology, discover the history of Delapré Abbey, get creative and hopefully make new friends - all fuelled by tea and cake of course!

Overall, the project seeks to contribute to the ongoing research within the sector, measuring the wellbeing impacts of engaging in archaeology on the people who take part. MOLA staff will be trained and upskilled in working with vulnerable adults in the hope that Delapré Digs can become a sustained community-led programme delivered by the MOLA Northampton Engagement Team in a long-running partnership with DAPT.