Overview
As part of our 20 Year Celebrations at The Sunlight Centre, we are staging an Oral History Project
The Oral History Project Manager plans, implements, and oversees initiatives to record, archive, and showcase personal stories, often focusing on community heritage, social care, or military history. Key duties include managing project budgets and timelines, training volunteers in interviewing techniques, ensuring ethical compliance (consent/data protection), and producing tangible outputs like exhibitions, websites, or soundscapes.
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. The 120th Birthday Oral and Art History Project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to create a therapeutic arts heritage project to improve residents’ creative health by celebrating the stories of people associated with our historic building, from former laundry workers to the campaigners who saved it from demolition, through collaborative creative activity..
Responsibilities
· Project Planning & Strategy: Define project goals, timelines, and budgets, particularly in compliance with funders like the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
· Interview Management: Coordinate the recording of life stories, often conducting interviews or supervising external interviewers.
· Volunteer & Staff Training: Recruit, train, and support creative health volunteers in ethical and high-quality oral history techniques.
· Archive & Curation: Ensure recordings are properly catalogued, transcribed, and deposited in Medway archives at the end of the project.
· Community Engagement: Partner with local schools, community groups, and cultural institutions to promote engagement and share findings.
· Dissemination: Create outputs such as digital archives, a mural and public exhibition in our community hall which will be donated to Medway Archives at the end of the project.
Skills
· Experience: Proven experience in designing/delivering oral history or heritage projects.
· Technical Proficiency: Knowledge of audio recording equipment, editing software, and digital archiving standards.
· Project Management: Strong planning, budgeting, and reporting skills.
· Interpersonal Skills: Empathy and the ability to work with diverse community members, particularly when dealing with sensitive, traumatic, or personal experiences.
· Knowledge: Understanding of GDPR, creative health and ethical guidelines for oral history.
Pay: £28,000.00-£30,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Sick pay
Work Location: In person
