Sharing skills: enabling communities to preserve their heritage
Start date: October 2022.
End Date: September 2024.
This project aims to get a wider range of people into heritage; specifically, people from minority ethnic communities, who are under-represented in heritage. Volunteers will gain transferable skills that they can use in other community-based heritage projects.
We will recruit a wide range of volunteers but focus especially on engaging with people from minority ethnic communities in Butetown, Grangetown, and Riverside.
To facilitate this, we will organise three Open Day events in collaboration with local organisations: Butetown Community Centre, South Riverside Community Development Centre (SRCDC), and Grange Pavilion to showcase our work and get people interested in volunteering with us.
Volunteers will work with the historical records of Cardiff Reform Synagogue (e.g., minute books, financial records, letters, photographs, etc.) and will assess, sort, digitise, catalogue, and deposit these records with Glamorgan Archives for permanent preservation and public access, and publish the digitised material on the People’s Collection Wales website to make it accessible worldwide.
Volunteers will receive training from Glamorgan Archives in handling archival material and listing archival documents for deposit, and training from People’s Collection Wales in copyright and GDPR and digitisation and metadata.
If they wish, volunteers will be able to gain the Agored Cymru accreditation in Digitising Materials for museums, libraries, and archives (level 2, 3 credits), which is delivered through People’s Collection Wales: https://www.agored.cymru/Units-and-Qualifications/Unit/CDO557.
We will organise visits to Glamorgan Archives, National Museum Wales, Museum of Cardiff, Firing Line Museum, and Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives to enable the volunteers to find out more about heritage institutions in Cardiff and talk to the heritage experts. These visits will also provide an opportunity for volunteers to meet one another and socialise.
We will organise two Cardiff Jewish walking trails for volunteers (based on our bilingual online interactive trail: https://www.jhasw.com/heritage-trails), in Spring 2023 and Spring 2024.
The project is funded by the Welsh Government; the grant is administered by Wales Council for
Voluntary Action.
Volunteering Roles
Volunteer Archive Co-Ordinator
As part of this role, volunteers will:
1. Assess and sort the records.
2. Catalogue digitised records, using Dublin Core standards, for publication on People’s Collection Wales.
3. List the records for deposit with Glamorgan Archives.This volunteering opportunity is open to everyone, but we especially encourage applications from students from minority ethnic communities.
Location: hybrid working – remotely (from home) or Cardiff Reform Synagogue.
Volunteer Digital Outputs Creator
As part of this role, volunteers will:
1. Digitise (scan or photograph) the records.
2. Label each record and its digital counterpart.
3. Edit the digital images for publication on the People’s Collection Wales website.This volunteering opportunity is open to everyone, but we especially encourage applications from students from minority ethnic communities.Location: hybrid working – remotely (from home) or Cardiff Reform Synagogue.
To apply for these roles, please contact Klavdija Erzen, Programme and Project Manager at klavdija.erzen@jhasw.org.uk