Focus Birmingham

Heritage Lottery Fund Project

The HLF project is a local project that is setup by Focus Enterprises and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Project started in January 2011 and will include the creation of an archive both audio and research based and the creation of a Key Stage 3 work book for History in schools. The project will lead up to a multi sensory exhibition in August 2011. Photographs and clips from the audio archive created of memories from the past will be posted on the HLF webpage.

Please get in touch and involved with the archive. “We need you”.

Perhaps you attended one of the Birmingham Royal Institutions For The Blind schools or you have worked for Focus Birmingham or QAC in the past, perhaps you are a current student at QAC or you are interested in volunteering on a Heritage lottery Funded Project, you may have an interest in history or a background as a teacher contact us, get involved we want to hear your views and we want to listen to your stories.

The project is about awareness and inclusion and the need to tell a story, a history of Birmingham and the people in it, but the opportunity to tell a story that has not yet been told regarding the history of the BRIB (Birmingham Royal Institution for the Blind) and the people that were part of this.
The launch for the project took place on the 21st March 2011. It was a wonderful day and lots of fun was had by all.

Schools will also be very much involved with the project. Schools will work on the project as part of a Key Stage 3 lesson plan for History. The schools involved will create a Key Stage 3 work booklet for future use within a local history module for Key Stage 3 History in Birmingham schools. The schools that will be working on the project will use both primary and secondary sources from Heritage archives, audio archive and research from the internet to create a future schools resource. The schools will take part in workshops with Heritage Archives from Birmingham Central Library and Birmingham Museums and Art Galleries to create work for the exhibition. The Heritage Lottery Funded project will need the involvement of 23 schools throughout Birmingham.

The project will focus on the creation of the first school for blind children in 1847 to the Focus Enterprises of the present day. Changes in education will be a point of interest as there has been a significant improvement to the way in which people live and learn from 1847 to 2011.

The project needs volunteers from research to archive and from administration to web site construction. Get in touch and be part of history.

For more information or to comment please contact:

Gabriella Zavoli
0121 478 5242
gabriella@focusenterprises.org.uk