Sharing back: ideas and where they’ve taken us

If you’ve been following our posts, you might know that over the last 6 months, we’ve been working with Historic England on the question :

How can we work together with more, and more diverse, people so that more action is taken to support the historic environment?

The first step taken in answering that question was to build upon the many and varied things people are already doing to protect and champion heritage and the historic environment. We asked people up and down the country about their experiences of supporting places and practices that matter to them — why did they start and what made it possible to take action? The commonalities across those many and varied experiences have culminated in 5 building blocks for inspiring and equipping people to act for heritage and the historic environment. They are:

In the next step of answering that big question, we asked people how we might be able to do even more for heritage and the historic environment using those building blocks as idea starters and prompts. We received back a brilliant array of ideas, from what we can do to learn and pass on the history of our homes to how we might come together to celebrate entire cities.

These ideas have put colour into how we can best act on those building blocks and answer the questions they pose. From looking across all the ideas, identifying the common themes and shared language, here’s a summary of what we’ve learnt…

For ‘everyone to be a keyholder’ and start from a place that makes working with more, and more diverse people, possible it’s important to:

Make space for people from the start — whether holding a question about the future of our historic environment or the future of a specific place, it’s important to engage openly and early with the people around you. Holding a question — not the answer and opening the door to the value that people can bring through their experiences and ideas.

Show the difference people can make — people can and are doing many everyday and extraordinary things to support heritage and the historic environment — wherever possible it’s important to recognise and celebrate how people have and can make a difference so that more people feel ‘I can do this’*

To ‘unlock the love’ and ‘open doors’ that inspire more people to get involved in heritage and the historic environment it’s important to…

Ask questions and prompt storytelling — we all have stories to draw upon and connections to the places and past around us, we need to start conversations and invite responses in ways that draw upon what people love and value about their historic environment and allows for the sharing of that connection one person to another

Meet people where they are — bring heritage and the historic environment into everyday lives by thinking broadly about when, how and where people can connect with the past — making use of lunch breaks and commutes, other past-times and existing groups, social spaces and everyday journeys

Draw upon all the senses (and others’ skills) — bring together heritage with art, music and nature to create multi-sensory ways to engage with the historic environment; working with other skills and disciplines in to make it possible e.g. the builder revealing the craftsmanship, the photographer capturing the beauty…*

To provide the ‘tools to stick at it’ and the sense that ‘you’re not alone’ that equip more people to go further into taking action for the historic environment it’s important to…

Share knowledge & know how — making ideas a reality takes knowledge and know-how — individuals and organisations sharing what they’ve learnt from their experience of supporting historic places in easy to understand ways helps equip others to follow in their footsteps.

Cross-share skills and expertise — make more people feel they belong and have valuable experience to offer by making clear that much of the skills and knowledge needed to support and sustain the historic environment isn’t heritage specific but encompasses governance, marketing, accounting, construction etc. *

Bring people together online and in person — create opportunities for supporters of heritage and the historic environment to come together around what they’re doing and why they do it; sharing experiences, offering support and providing community**

Through these coloured in building blocks we can start to reimagine how we work together to champion the historic environment including: doing even more to prompt and share stories that show the diversity of what’s already happening to champion historic places and heritage,* not just offering advice but connecting and convening people to share their knowledge and experience. Equipped with these learnings, the next step is to work with Historic England on exactly how to put them into action across the work they do.

But the building blocks and these prompts for how to act upon them, are not just relevant to Historic England, they’re for anyone who wants to work together with others in championing and protecting heritage and historic places.*

So as always we’re keen to know …What’s true to your experience? What’s missing….