The Living and Working on Sheppey project will explore the recent history and changes in working lives on Sheppey in the last decades of the 20th Century and into the 21st.
A first strand of the project will engage with people with different experiences of work (paid and unpaid, formal and informal) asking them to record and reflect on their working lives, and will seek out people who have a connection to Blue Town and to the former naval dockyard at Sheerness. Academics will train local people to undertake this reminiscence work directly.
A second strand of the project will engage with younger people - via teachers or community group leaders - asking them to imagine their lives into the future.
The project is funded by the South Eastern Coastal Communities programme. The project team includes academics from the University of Kent, and the University of Southampton, and the community group Remember Blue Town, whose members are also involved in the Blue Town Heritage Centre. It will result in an event, an exhibition and an archive.
Recruitment
For the first strand of the project, we are looking for people to be interviewed about their work and everyday lives. In particular, we're interested in people with a connection to Blue Town and the former naval dockyard at Sheerness. We are also looking for volunteers to carry out these interviews.
Training will be given by academics and those who sign up will be required to participate in three training sessions in Autumn 2009, each lasting around two hours. In Spring 2010, additional training will be provided in audio-editing at the University of Kent's Medway Campus. Volunteers should commit for the duration of the project, until June 2010. Each person will interview approximately five individuals at the Blue Town Heritage Centre or other locations on Sheppey.
The project is also looking for an audio typist to transcribe the interviews. The audio typist needs to have their own equipment and will receive an hourly rate of payment.
For the second strand of the project, we are looking to recruit young people in their final year of full-time education (Year 11) - via teachers or community group leaders. We will ask them to imagine that they are towards the end of their life, and to look back and write about what has happened to them.
Finally, we are also very interested in hearing from people who took part in the original studies by Ray Pahl and Claire Wallace in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Contact Details
Anyone interested in the project, please contact:
Alice Young (Project Coordinator)
The Blue Town Heritage Centre
69 High Street
Blue Town
Sheerness
Kent
ME12 1RW
Alternatively telephone 01795 662981 or email Alice Young.