This week we kick off a series of events aimed at not-for-profit organisations across the North West who want to celebrate and explore Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME), refugee or migrant heritage.

[quote]“Hot off the heels of Black History Month and the BBC’s Black and British season – running through November – there’s plenty of inspiration for groups exploring ideas for a project.”[/quote]

Hot off the heels of Black History Month and the BBC’s Black and British season – running through November – there’s plenty of inspiration for groups exploring ideas for a project.

The projects we fund help to celebrate the diverse heritage of the North West. Nigerian immigration in the 1940s-1960s, the heritage of Chinese New Year, or exploring Manchester’s connection to West African textiles – these are just some of the cultures our funding has helped to explore and we are looking for more groups to come to us for funding to tell their stories.

Could your community be the next one to receive an HLF grant award?

Find out how to apply at one of our events

Whether you are an established local group or a newly constituted organisation, we want to help more people to learn about heritage. If any of the questions above applies to you, come along and talk to HLF staff about your idea at one of our events or drop-in sessions detailed below.

Central Library, Manchester, 1 December 2016

• Workshop 1: 10.00am-11.10am: Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust: What makes a good heritage project?
• Workshop 2: 11.30am-12.30pm: An introduction to HLF

Please book your workshop place via email including your name, organisation, which session you want to attend and your email and telephone number.

• Afternoon drop-ins: 1.30pm-5.30pm

No need to book, just pop along with your ideas and meet HLF staff. There will also be a chance to tour the Race Relations Archive and see how the library can help share your project findings.

Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, 6 December 2016

• 1.00pm-4.00pm

No need to book, just pop along with your ideas and meet HLF staff

Rochdale, KYP, Apna Ghar, 15 December 2015

• 12.00pm-4.30pm

Please book your place by via email. Other funders will be attending this meeting in addition to HLF.

More dates will be available soon, please check back.

Sharing experiences

We are always keen to support more groups and organisations to look after and share the heritage that is important to them.

Our website and Online Community are packed with information about projects we've funded across the UK, and over the next few months we will be publishing a series of blogs by individuals reflecting on their experience of applying to HLF and sharing stories of the heritage they explored.

We start with a blog by Gbolahan Peter Macjob, Director Afristar Foundation, who ran the project An Oral History of Nigerian Immigrants from the 1940s-1960s.

Our second blog is by Marcus Hercules, Artistic Director of Hercules Productions, and explores how running an HLF-supported oral history-based project encouraged elders from the Manchester Windrush generation to share their stories.