"Every organisation involved in public participation in archaeology has been affected in some way by the Coronavirus crisis. This is your chance to tell us how the CBA can help.
The CBA has recently secured support from Historic England’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund for a project to help rebuild public participation in archaeology as we recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Cancelled projects, loss of income, worries about volunteer capacity and the need to plan for different ways of working in future are just some of the problems that groups have faced. There are distinct challenges for those working with children and young people, as well as those with an older membership.
Through this project, the CBA will use its knowledge and skills to support as many organisations as possible to help rebuild public participation in archaeology. We will listen to what organisations need so that we can offer small-scale immediate support and – most importantly – plan a future programme of activity and funding bids which will enable us to help recharge community archaeology over the coming months and years.
The first step is to start a conversation with local and regional societies and groups, including our YAC branches and member organisations, to find out how you have been affected and what help you would welcome from us.
Please take a few minutes to give us your views by completing our survey here
There is a seperate survey for those involved with YAC Groups here
Based on these conversations, we will be able to plan some immediate support to help the sector recover. This might include online training, toolkits, mentoring or one-to-one advice sessions.
We will finalise the details of this offer based on what you tell us you need.
The insight we gain from these conversations will also enable us to undertake detailed planning work for future CBA projects to extend our Youth Engagement work, develop new forms of volunteering, plan a possible future small grants scheme and improve our digital infrastructure.
At the CBA, we know that we need to change the way we work as an organisation in response to the ongoing crisis. This project will help us ensure that we do this in a way which helps as many organisations as possible offer new and continuing opportunities for people to enjoy archaeology."
Source: This article was taken from Council for British Archaeology (https://new.archaeologyuk.org/news/recharging-british-archaeology-survey)
