Here To Stay Project

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund the Leeds Black Elders Association's 'Here To Stay Project' is an oral history initiative which seeks to capture and preserve the memories and experiences of African and African Caribbean elders in Leeds. It focuses on their life’s before and after they came to Britain in the 1940’s and onwards, and the contributions which they have made in society.

The Project encourages the community to donate items or copies of documents in order to have them displayed in the community and also placed in the public archives such as the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Yorkshire Film Archive,  Leeds Museums and  the Library Services for the benefit of the community.

Going into schools and organisations is also part of the projects activities which links with the school curriculum i.e. ‘Citizenship’ ‘Literacy’ and Black History Celebrations. A team of Elders have been given training to participate in sessions relaying their experiences. One to One interviews will also be carried out to record oral histories of the elders. All these experiences will be documented on a website, CDs, DVDs and in a book for the benefit of the community and wider audience.

The project was born out of the lack of information available regarding the histories of our Black people in Leeds.  Various organisations and groups in Leeds, including LBEA, have over the years organised events, produced books and  articles pertaining to this field of work.  The project aims to undertake a strategic process of documenting this legacy through the provision of services which make available avenues to collect, promote and access the history for the local community and wider community.