The Heritage Youth Partnership Newsletter - May 2024 

Contents: Partnership Development - Shared Learning - Local Projects - Youth Voice & Influence 
+  News and Opportunities from Heritage organisations 

Partnership Development​ 

• New Partners: We are still interested in reaching out to new partners – especially with a view to matching up at a local level and reflecting the themes that young people choose for their social action projects. Please let us know who you’d recommend, in any area relevant to heritage e.g. natural environment and wildlife, so we can get in touch and further enrich the expertise in our national stakeholder network. 

• First partnership in development between Girlguiding North West England and Historic England’s Heritage Schools team, to help develop a Heritage Champions Badge and pack. One of our goals is to develop more national and local partnerships between stakeholders. 

• Fundraising is one of the primary goals of this programme. We have held initial discussions to draft an outline proposal for future work, building on the findings of the feasibility study and more recent research, as well as what we are learning from this programme. More information to follow. 

Shared Learning​ 

• National Stakeholders’ Meeting – 8 May Our most recent online meeting of national heritage and youth organisations included: presentations by Sandra Stancliffe (Head of Education, Inclusion and Volunteering at Historic England) on this partnership project and other complementary Historic England programmes and Melissa Strauss (National Lottery Heritage Fund) on the Kick the Dust programme and evaluation 2024; as well as news, updates and opportunities on the programme and from partners. Slides and a recording of the event are available on the hub. The next National Stakeholders’ Meeting will be held on Teams on Wednesday 3 July, 10-11am.  

• Heritage Youth Partnership Online Hub is now live! Shared materials and resources are available for group leaders who have signed up to participate in the programme. Thanks to the following partners for sharing materials, opportunities and case studies: Historic England Heritage Schools, Volunteer Police Cadets, Canal & River Trust, National Lottery Heritage Fund, the War Memorial Trust, English Heritage and the #iwill programme. If you have something to share, please get in touch. 

Local Projects 

• Local project recruitment and support to date: Following our call for leaders to attend a series of introductory webinars in March, 40 leaders representing Girlguiding, Girls’ Brigade, Boys’ Brigade, Fire Cadets, Scouts and Volunteer Police Cadets attended. We have received 18 Expressions of Interest forms to date, each being followed up with offers of support. Activity has already begun in Lancashire, with some brilliant heritage shields created by 1st Waddington Rainbows, and 1st West Bradford Guides adding their perspectives to the Missing Pieces project, whilst updating a village trail.  

• Take the Heritage Challenge! Funding available for social action projects: We are still welcoming uniformed youth groups/leaders interested to deliver heritage-themed activity, from Exploring heritage (Level 1) up to Discovering, Planning, Doing & Sharing youth-led social action projects (Levels 2-4). We have microgrants available to support at least 10 of these social action projects. The microgrants are for up to £300 per project, for expenses and materials, and £500 for potential partners’ costs, such as speakers, entry costs, materials, celebration events. Each project will receive an evaluation pack and mentoring support. For more information, sign up to attend a Leaders’ Webinar on 10 or 11 June, 6.30-7.15pm: Take the Heritage Challenge! An Introduction to the Heritage Youth Partnership, how to access available resources, support and funding. 

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Youth Voice and Influence 

• Youth Reference Group still recruiting (ages 18-25) young representatives of uniformed organisations to join the 8 members. We particularly welcome young people from local social action project sites and/or under-represented groups. We had our first meeting in April, to hear about progress with the project and for the representatives to feedback on the hub layout and evaluation questions. Two members updated the national stakeholders in our meeting on 8 May. 

• Youth Associates appointed to the programme team, to support youth voice and influence in the project and provide feedback. James Linderman (Fire Cadets Leader) and Usman Ahmed (Volunteer Police Cadets Leader and #iwillmovement liaison) 

 
News and Opportunities from Heritage Organisations 

• Canal and River Trust - Challenge Badges for uniformed groups, reviewed and designed by leaders and young people, are now available for uniformed organisations. These sessions could be delivered as Heritage Challenge sessions (Explore and beyond) by group leaders with units near canals/rivers. See the hub Activities Page for links to their website and details on how to get your Explorers Challenge Badge as part of your response to Take the Heritage Challenge.  

• The British Library’s Young Creators Lab is now recruiting young creatives, aged 18-24. Young Creators Lab is a digital content project designed for young people, by young people. Selected young people will be paid and trained to develop meaningful stories for social media, explore the collections and current exhibition, Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music, spark new ideas and inspire conversations around the world. Applications close: Sunday 26 May: https://www.bl.uk/learning/young-creators-lab 
   

• Kids In Museums Annual Take Over Day is on 22 November. This is an opportunity for young people to connect with a local museum or link their social action project to a museum open day – as young guides or even potential exhibitors. For more information: https://kidsinmuseums.org.uk/what-we-do/takeover-day/  
   

• Historic England - Blue Plaque nominations will open later in May to July 2024. Historic England is running the new national blue plaque scheme on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This summer, from mid-May to mid-July, you can submit your own nominations for a blue plaque. Full criteria will be published soon; the key points to consider are:  

• At least 20 years must have passed since the candidate’s death  

• They must have made a significant contribution to human welfare or happiness  

• At least 1 building in England associated with the figure must survive in a form that the commemorated person would have recognised, and it must be visible from the public highway.  

• Shout Out Loud & English Heritage - Reverberate 2024 Applications open until 9am on 28 May. Reverberate supports grassroots organisations to run small, locally-based projects that enable and empower young people to re-discover, re-imagine and re-create heritage through creativity, and share that vision with their communities. The scheme will support up to 5 projects, providing them with £2,500 each. Projects must include a visit to an English Heritage site, story or collection as inspiration, some critical exploration of the themes and a creative response that can be shared more widely.