We want to encourage and support more young people and youth groups to explore projects and ideas which are inspired by their heritage. This could be anything from discovering people’s memories and cultural traditions to telling the stories of buildings and objects.

We’re looking for more applications from the Birmingham area to our Young Roots programme which provides grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 to help 11-25 year olds lead heritage projects. We also want to encourage heritage organisations to involve young people and their fresh ideas and enthusiasm in projects of all sizes.

Through Young Roots-funded projects, young people in Birmingham have already looked at the history of New Street Station, West African textiles and Victorian gang culture.

Routes2Roots will run until May 2016 and is being co-created with youth marketing agency Beatfreeks. We are also working with ambassadors who will be sharing their stories online over the coming months. It’s all leading up to a big event in September when, as part of Birmingham History Week, we’ll be getting everyone together to help inspire project ideas. Stay tuned!