REMEMBERING THE PAST, RESOURCING THE FUTURE
Tell us about your charity Our charity is entirely volunteer-based and collects and manages stories, sound recordings and memorabilia reflecting every aspect of life in North Tyneside since the turn of the 20th Century. Since 1997 we have developed one of the country’s longest running and diverse community history archives. The volunteers do everything necessary to take an interesting memory from an individual, capture it, add it to our catalogue and then publish it on the website. The benefit is felt universally, from the volunteers who lead the work, to the individuals who share their stories and the audiences that enjoy them. We strongly believe that everyone has a story to share, and those stories deserve to be listened to, preserved and enjoyed by future generations. The group now has amassed an incredible catalogue of social history showing the human stories behind changes to key industries and ways of life across the North East. The stories bear witness to unique experiences of the life of individuals and the volunteers empower and engage people from all walks of life – from patients receiving end of life care to couples retelling the story of how they first met, stories are captured that may otherwise have gone unheard. How does the charity help the Community? The charity has strong community links and partnerships across North Tyneside. One example of our projects was “Bringing Back The Banner” which tells the story of how residents in Burradon banded together to preserve the local heritage and reinvigorate their community spirit by restoring their historic pit banner. Our charity supported the local school children, parents and others to explore and capture the importance of Burradon’s mining heritage. A project working with North Tyneside Council, captured the memories of couples who met at the Dome at Whitley Bay in the days when it was a dancehall. Another project, working with North Shields Business Chamber, captured the story of shopping in North Shields throughout the 20th Century. What have been your proudest moments? Apart from the benefit of actual stories captured, it has been great to see the development of our volunteers who come from diverse personal backgrounds. Under the guidance and support of Dr Kath Smith, the volunteers are provided with training packages from which they learn interviewing techniques and how to use digital voice recorders to transcribe and upload stories to maintain and enlarge the online archive. There is a real sense of teamwork and camaraderie with many reporting that they have made new friends and significantly increased their confidence and social network, as well as their knowledge of local history. It was a great honour that the charity was recently awarded The Queens Award for Voluntary Service in recognition of the charity’s achievements. This is the equivalent of an MBE for a voluntary group and is the highest award that is made to the voluntary sector. How can you get involved? The charity is based at the Linskill Centre in North Shields and to find out more, all details are on our website.
