A new initiative to help those with dementia is to be launched this week. People living with dementia in Lancashire will be given the opportunity to share their memories of local places thanks to a £49,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“Lancashire Not Forgotten” is a project involving library, museum and archive services from Blackpool Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Lancashire County Council.
A program of light touch events will be held at heritage sites within each of the council areas. Heritage collections will be used to help to capture and preserve the memories of those living with dementia by remembering how they lived, worked and played decades ago.
Activities, archives and artefacts will be used to stimulate discussion and tease out facts and impressions. Life stories will be conserved in a shared digital archive and each area will produce a bespoke legacy linked to their own events programme.
In Blackpool a tableau will be created to evoke the fun of the Illuminations and local gala days, while Blackburn with Darwen will create dementia friendly town centre heritage trails connecting iconic civic buildings relevant to all residents, and Lancashire County Council will produce tapestries to illustrate memories of working in cotton mills.
Art will underpin heritage as creative experiences, augmented with historical data, to unlock the past and stimulate engagement.
The projects participants are the primary resource as the tales they tell and experiences they share are ultimately captured, digitised and disseminated via council websites.
Deputy leader of Blackpool Council, Cllr Gillian Campbell said “Lancashire Not Forgotten will give a voice to those living with dementia as they gift their personal stories to future generations.”
“Their recollections will come together in a unique archive of what it meant to live, work and enjoy leisure time in 20th century Lancashire.”
“This is such good news, we are grateful to Lottery Heritage Fund for supporting this initiative and we look forward to working with colleagues in neighbouring authorities.”
For more information visit the Lancashire County Council website.
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