Black and Asian Outreach

Worcestershire Record Office (WRO) is committed to a long-term strategy of outreach to ethnic communities in the county. We hope to alert a wider audience to our resources, encouraging use and deposit of records which will also ensure enduring benefits for the whole county by preserving a richer and more accurate picture of Worcestershire and its inhabitants

We have so far undertaken several initiatives. An exhibition, containing general information about the WRO and a display of some records with an ethnic community focus, has toured many libraries, ethnic community centres and meeting places across Worcestershire, with much positive response. Our general information leaflet has been translated into five local minority languages; Bengali, Italian, Chinese Polish and Urdu.  We are also asking researchers who come into the office to record any references they might find to black, Asian or ethnic people, of which we already have over twenty entries. We have a list of websites for researching black and Asian history and culture.

The WRO has established contacts with ethnic community representatives and organised an open evening for ethnic communities, which was held at Record Office, County Hall, in October 1999. Guest speakers included Marika Sherwood of the national Black and Asian Studies Association and Zahoor Ahmed, Community Development Officer for Worcester Racial Equality Council. The evening comprised short talks by two assistant archivists about the purpose of our outreach and an introduction to using WRO. Marika Sherwood spoke about the contribution of the ethnic presence to British history. Zahoor Ahmed highlighted the importance of making use of the WRO, to ensure ethnic communities are visible to future generations. These talks were followed by a tour of the archives and a questions session.  The event was well attended and has since been followed up with oral history interviews and promises of photographic deposits.

Two of the WRO archivists spoke at a national conference in Nottingham in July, designed for fellow members of the archive profession aimed at encouraging other record offices to implement an active outreach policy.

We intend to continue to work with ethnic groups in Worcestershire, to keep up the momentum and allow their history to be preserved in the WRO, and we encourage researchers to highlight any sources they find in their research.

If you would like any more information about our progress, please contact the WRO directly.