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a group of children and adults engaging in a hands-on activity with toy train tracks inside an industrial-style museum space. The background features large historic steam engines and machinery, while participants sit or kneel on the floor, assembling and playing with the tracks.

Centering the Community in a cost-of-living crisis

On 23 February we heard from Melissa Maynard (London Museum of Water & Steam) and Eleanor Root (Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service) about the measures they are taking to support their local communities through a cost of living crisis.

Eleanor told us about Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service’s partnership with a local Job Centre, a relationship developed over the last 7 years which is really bearing fruit for all parties. They started small and have developed the scope over the years. Over February half term they held a very popular week long ‘Joy at the Job Centre’ initiative. They commissioned artists and dancers and brought animals into the Job Centre for children and their parents to engage and participate with for free. One of the Job Centre staff said ‘the creative community can engage in a way with the community that we find hard’.

At the Job Centre they provided a free, warm, safe space for local families and even offer food, art equipment and clothing to participate in activities.

Eleanor explained that this partnership has really helped the museum service to better understand the demographics and needs of their local communities. All projects are developed in collaboration with Job Centre staff and users and she stressed how important it has been to build these close relationships between the people providing and using these services. In response to need identified through this partnership, the museums now offers free ‘start of school’ stationary kits in September to local children to help parents with the costs associated with the new school year.

Melissa started her talk by stating the core remit of London Museum of Water & Steam to be ‘helpful, engaging, inclusive and fun’. She puts the local community at the very core of their work, not as an add on. They offer free complimentary tickets to users of local food banks and other charity groups, children enter for free with a £19 adult ticket proving year-long access. A local guild donate money to cover the travel costs of local school group visits. The museum offers a warm space, with free wifi and charging. Melissa is keen to offer the space for use by local community groups and the local council hold surgeries there. There is a group that meet specifically to combat loneliness and the garden acts as a free-to-access play area for local children. These are all low cost ways of making a bigger impact.

With rising costs, Melissa has had to consider ‘can we do this and do it well?’ She said they have focused on the quality of their offer, so that it really is tailored to local needs rather than quantity.

Since opening up more to the community the benefits for the museum have been more repeat visitors, increasing the diversity of their visitors and becoming a friendlier place with a stronger network and sense of community.

Melissa’s advice was to start small, take any opportunities to build and develop community relationships, and to lose your ‘ego’ as a museum and listen to what the community wants and needs.

It was fascinating to hear more about all the hands on initiatives being offered by both museums and a huge thank you to Eleanor and Melissa for sharing their time and insight with the SWFed members.

Katherine Nichols