Culture And Memory

Exploring & Belonging: local heritage and global diversity

The 2033 Heritage strategy envisions heritage as broad and inclusive. This project helps to facilitate this by enabling forced migrant engagement with local heritage in Britain. Each year, thirty asylum seekers and refugees (90 over the life of the project) will work with heritage and community organisations to conduct research and produce content which will help to shape local ideas of heritage, while simultaneously developing English and other employment-related skills. Project outputs include a website offering diverse ESOL learning resources focused on heritage themes in 6 localities across Yorkshire & Humber, co-produced by participants, MESH and project partners, plus guidance on how to develop heritage projects with ESOL classes across the country. Co-produced local exhibitions and community engagement sessions are also key outputs. The project team includes at least 2 forced migrant experts by experience, enabling them to gain experience relevant to employment in the UK heritage sector.