The over 60s across Kent are getting a rare chance to take part in a project run by the Group for Education in Museums.

(Left to right) Edna Wood, Patricia Crepin and Margaret McIntosh from Snowdown Court, Aylesham, take part in Sounding Out Your Heritage

 Sounding Out Your Heritage, which is being run by the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) with funding from the Transformation Fund, is designed to help participants learn and discover by sharing personal experiences in a celebration of their social and historical knowledge.  GEM has been working with housing associations and councils – as well as its existing partners in the county’s museums and heritage sector – to reach an audience who are often neglected when it comes to learning.  They may feel isolated, or have possibly had a bad educational experience in the past.

The programme involves six groups of elderly people – from Canterbury, Whitstable, Gravesend, Kemsing and Gillingham – which will typically be made of up ten participants.  They will work with a range of professionals from areas such as education, museums, media and the arts over a number of sessions to explore their heritage through music and dance, photography and audio recordings.  The groups will also examine how objects can evoke memories and be invaluable in the retelling of personal stories and histories.

It is also planned that the groups will complete their involvement by producing a resource such as a photo essay book or recording and, crucially, that it will provide a springboard for both groups and individuals to continue and develop their learning experience.  In addition, a series of ‘celebration’ events will be held to mark the culmination of each project.

John Stevenson, GEM director, says: “It is all too easy for those of retirement age and over to fall off the radar when it comes to social inclusion, engagement and opportunities to unlock the potential of a lifetime of knowledge and experience.

“So often, projects like this involve just a couple of hours working with a group with no follow-up or a tangible outcome.  Sounding Out Your Heritage is different. Participants will be involved in the creation of a resource marking the work of their group and, most importantly, we hope people will have developed an interest, nurtured a skill or acquired the confidence to take what they have learned to another level.”

Organisers are also hoping this pilot scheme will have a long-term future and are planning to produce a ‘tool kit’ that will allow others to benefit from the success of Sounding Out Your Heritage and be inspired to develop their own projects.

The six groups which comprise the Sounding Out Your Heritage project are:

•    Cranmer House, Canterbury (delivered in partnership with Canterbury Museums & Galleries and Canterbury City Council Housing)
•    Windsor House, Whitstable (delivered in partnership with Canterbury Museums & Galleries and Canterbury City Council Housing)
•    Snowdown Court, Aylesham (delivered in partnership with Canterbury Museums & Galleries)
•    The Dynes Residential Care Home, Kemsing (delivered in partnership with The Abbeyfield Kent Society and Sevenoaks Museum)
•    Edward Moore House, Gravesend (delivered in partnership with Abbeyfield Kent)
•    Brompton Community, Gillingham (delivered in partnership with the Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham)

 www.gem.org.uk

Sounding Out Your Heritage is one of over 200 projects awarded funding as part of the Transformation Fund’s ‘learning for pleasure’ innovation spearheaded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).  Through Transformation Fund grants, partnerships of public, private and third sector organisations in England are creating projects to:
•    Encourage more and different people into informal learning, particularly people from disadvantaged groups
•    Open up access to learning in new places, in new ways and at more flexible times
•    Support people to set up self-organised groups and learning clubs
•    Widen choice by developing and sharing innovative content
•    Build partnerships and strengthen the capacity of informal adult learning organisations
•    Improve connections and progression between different kinds of learning
•    Make better use of broadcasting and technology to stimulate and support learning.

www.transformationfund.org.uk