Open the Box
Connecting communities through archives
In 2024 we were awarded a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to start working on a project called Open the Box, which aims to engage a wider range of people with the archives preserved at the ERO.
Over the next three years, we hope to work with communities in specific places - primarily in Tendring - as well as organisations working with groups under-represented in the archive, including younger people, ethnically diverse communities, and LGBTQ+ people.
The project aims to raise awareness of archives, re-interpret collections of relevance to these communities, and start a dialogue to understand how stories can be better captured, preserved and re-told now and in the future.
We would love to hear from you! Please fill out our anonymous survey and be in with a chance of winning a £50 Love2Shop voucher!
If you need any support in accessing the survey please email us at openthebox@essex.gov.uk.
