7883 Sunderland Community Skills and Participation project: Heritage Action Zone

This project aims to develop the work on understanding the link between heritage and wellbeing, potentially producing more information to enhance the evidence base in this area.

It should also provide a transferable methodology for use in future, similar projects.

Specifically, the project intends to assess the wellbeing outcomes of involving priority groups on a conservation project within the Sunderland Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) area.

It will measure the improvement in confidence, self-esteem and new skills acquired, and how these have been specifically impacted by working on a heritage conservation project.

The project is directly needed to repair the boundary wall of Holy Trinity Church (c.1719) that lies in the East End of the Sunderland HAZ area.

The conservation work of the part listed wall will engage a community group of veterans and of young people.

The project aims to assess the wellbeing benefits of involving a priority group on a conservation project, with a particular emphasis on the added value of learning a new conservation skill and on this being part of the local historic environment.

As part of the evaluation of working with partners the project will explore the applicability of this model to social prescribing methods of delivering wellbeing.

Individual experience will be evaluated in order to assess the impact of participation in the project on participants' wellbeing.

The project will rely on collaborative working with partners and therefore will require the coordination of a volunteer project, skills training and evaluation.

This project forms one of a suite proposed under the draft Place-Making and Wellbeing programme which itself, is a work package within the Sunderland Heritage Action Zone.

It is intended that the project is managed by an individual or organisation commissioned by Historic England carried out in partnership with the relevant stakeholders.