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Coasts in Mind recently partnered with a local heritage media company, Ace Holds the Space, to collaborate on a memory workshop event in Bideford, North Devon. The goal of this collaboration was to two-fold: to provide a field experience for young people to apply their podcasting skills, and to preserve valuable local memories from the community.
Heritage Media and Social Impact in North Devon
Ace Holds the Space, run by Roshani Ramass, is a media production company that provides media workshops and services. Their goal is to empower local communities and bring them together by amplifying the voices of less vocal community groups. They specialise in heritage projects and have undertaken a number of media projects with local history and heritage groups.
Ace Holds the Space also has a social impact arm, Alignment Creation Enterprises, which seeks to empower the local community through creative media. As part of this work, Roshani has spent the academic year working with a number of young people – who have dubbed themselves ‘The Ace Team’ – on an Audio Art and Podcasting course. This dedicated group has been meeting each week to learn about the technical and social aspects of media production. They began the year learning the basics of podcasting and editing before moving on to jingle-making and visual media.
Whilst the technology serves to initially engage and motivate the young people, it is the other lessons Roshani is teaching that are perhaps the most important. Through this creative process, Roshani teaches young people the ‘soft skills’ of listening, empathising and helping others to feel safe. These skills are needed in the context of the course to record a podcast, but these transferable skills will serve the young people in many areas of their lives.
Through explicit instruction of social skills, Roshani helps these young people to interact with others in a scaffolded way that helps them to feel confident in a wide range of social situations. One young person in the group agreed that although they were initially focused on the technical tasks, they have grown in social engagement, making more eye contact and expressing themselves more fully.
In the final module of the year, the young people put these skills to the test in a field work experience. This year, The Ace Team collaborated with us on a memory workshop event in Bideford.
Collaborating and Co-creating
Prior to the event, we met with The Ace Team to discuss the Coasts in Mind project and the event. The Ace Team were briefed on the seven indicators of coastal change the project is using: coastal land surface change, cultural coastal use, foreshore features, weather/climate events, heritage and archaeology, biodiversity/wildlife, and tide line. The young people grasped the idea of the project quickly and asked probing questions about the coastal change indicators.
The Ace Team each chose coastal change indicators that interested them and worked with the Coasts in Mind team to co-create a list of interview questions around these topics. Some young people were fascinated by the Second World War and chose to ask questions around military history and archaeology. Others were interested in the biodiversity changes and designed questions to reveal changes in plants and animals along the coast.
Recording Memories
The memory workshop was attended by a variety of community members in Bideford. Some of the attendees had interests and training in heritage, whilst others came along to share their personal memories or to learn something new. Many attendees brought photos and newspaper clippings with them that showed changes across their lifetime.
Image: Senior Community Archaeologist Kate Shear presenting the Coasts in Mind indicators of change. MOLA
Image: The group sharing memories at the Bideford Memory Workshop. MOLA
Image: Roshani helping to record memories at Bideford Memory Workshop. MOLA
During the workshop, attendees shared their memories and stories of coastal change across the coastal change indicators. They shared photos they had brought along and reminisced with others in the community. We collected these stories and memories onto a digital map throughout the event.
Image: Group marking important changes and memories on the map. MOLA
For the second portion of the workshop, the Ace Team conducted a series of individual interviews with workshop participants. The young people asked the interview questions they had prepared, and the workshop attendees shared their memories and expertise. The interviews were recorded for later use in podcasts.
Image: Ace Team members recording an interview with a workshop participant. MOLA
Putting their skills into practice, the Ace Team were professional and created a comfortable environment to set their interviewees at ease. All of the workshop participants commented on how well the young people had handled the interviews.
One participant, who felt very uncertain about being recorded and did not feel comfortable being recorded by Coasts in Mind staff, was happy to be interviewed by a young person. The participant commented that working with someone young helped them to feel at ease in a situation that would otherwise have been intimidating. This interview captured a unique viewpoint and irreplaceable memories of the North Devon coast. These important memories that would otherwise have been lost were able to be collected and preserved, demonstrating the value of this intergenerational strategy.
Image: A photo brought along to the workshop by a participant, showing Appledore Quay and dockyard cranes around 1960. Courtesy of Lesley Webber
Image: A photo brought along to the workshop by a participant, showing the construction of the Torridge Bridge in 1985. Courtesy of Lesley Webber
Image: A newspaper clipping brought along to the workshop by a participant, showing the breaking of Bideford Bridge in 1968. Courtesy of Lesley Webber
At the end of the workshop, many attendees shared that their work with The Ace Team was the highlight of the event. They were pleased to see young people taking an interest in local history and heritage, and were glad to have life experience to share. These intergenerational experiences serve to strengthen bonds between different community groups, thereby increasing community resilience.
Adding Artistic Touches
After the event, The Ace Team began the hard technical work of editing the audio content into concise audio clips and podcasts. Completing all their own audio editing and sound effects with Roshani’s guidance, the Ace Team created a number of short audio interviews with workshop participants. Some Ace Team members created musical effects from scratch, and others included sound effects that reflect the memories the interviewee is sharing. The result are professional, polished pieces that are engaging and informative to listen to. The contrast of young and old community voices creates a wonderfully tangible experience of living heritage.
Links to the fantastic interviews coming soon- watch this space!
Showcasing New Skills
The Ace Team held an event to present their learnings and audio creations from the year of work. Around 25 participants attended the end of year celebration, including families of young people on The Ace Team, Libraries Unlimited staff, local funding bodies and representatives from local heritage organisations. Roshani and the young people shared all the had learnt throughout the year. The young people also played several of the podcasts and recordings they created, and explained to the audience how they had recorded their own sound effects, edited the audio footage and more. The young people were so proud of their progress and expressed a lot of enthusiasm about continuing on with this work and bringing more young people into the project.
Image: Roshani presenting the Ace Team's work at the end of the year showcase event. MOLA
The Ace Team have big plans for the summer; they are planning to create some automation and are also heading to a local radio recording studio soon to showcase their skills on air!
One Ace Team member is also starting their journey on Ace Holds the Space’s professional pathway. Having completed the year of training, the young person is now volunteering with local heritage projects Ace Holds the Space is working on. This will then lead to paid employment with Ace Holds the Space and help the young person on their pathway towards their chosen career path.
Measuring Impact
The Ace Team’s audio outputs throughout the year have been impressive, but the benefits of Ace Holds the Space’s workshop does not stop there. The parents, leaders and the participants themselves have all noted positive changes in more than just their audio editing skills. Positive changes were noted across the cohort in self-confidence, ‘have a go’ attitude, socialising, building relationships and listening skills.
Many young people in the cohort are homeschooled, and these sessions provide an opportunity to socialise with others. One participant described the sessions as ‘something that brings me loads of joy’. Parents commented that the young people were motivated to attend every week.
Parents of young people involved in the workshop also said they had made ‘huge strides’ in their ability to collaborate and work with others. 100% of participants also reported an increase in social interactions and confidence compared to the start of the year. One young person commented that ‘[i]t makes me feel more confident in myself I go out and interview people and it's just so meaningful’.