Young Roots
Fifteen young sportspeople set out to capture the memories of players and collect club memorabilia before they were lost. They recruited heritage partner Future Seed to provide training in media, oral history, archiving and digitisation and took a behind-the-scenes tour at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to understand how great exhibitions are made. They also met a local history group to understand how the whole area had changed in 50 years, before interviewing club heroes, parents and volunteers.
To share their discoveries, they created a mobile exhibition, project film, learning pack, social media app and a playing card game of famous players. They also buried a time capsule, hosted a celebration match and designed an anniversary sports kit.
The project challenged perceptions among all generations by celebrating young people who contribute to their communities and older people who remain active into their 70s. The project also encouraged parents to be more involved, celebrated the club’s diverse make-up to combat racism in sport and even highlighted the importance of the club to the council, encouraging them to allocate land for new facilities.