Local volunteers help care leavers to share their experiences

Thanks to the National Lottery's Heritage Fund's generous funding, our charity has been opening up its rich history to the local community. Most recently, the charity, which supports over 2,000 children and adults each year, has been working with local volunteers on an oral histories project.  

The project began in April 2021 and was developed to gather the stories of people who have been in the Together Trust's care. Rebecca Finley, the Together Trust's 150th project coordinator, shared: 

"To make this happen, we chose to recruit a group of volunteers from the local Cheadle area. The aim was for people within the local community to get insight into the lives of people who have been cared for by us within the local community. The volunteers have been conducting interviews with our care leavers, helping them to share their experiences about being in our care and their experience of leaving care." 

We recruited five volunteers from the local area who completed training with the Oral Histories Society in May. The training covered the origins of oral histories and why this method is great for preserving people's stories. The training also allowed our volunteers to understand interview techniques and get the best out of their interview candidates.  

Across June, the volunteers have interviewed six care leavers whose stories will now be retained in the Together Trust's archive for future generations to listen to and learn from. This was an important project for the Together Trust so their care leavers could share their experience from their own perspective and in their own words.  

“Our Oral Histories Project has been an amazing opportunity to hear the stories and experiences of people supported by the Together Trust. Our local volunteers have done a fantastic job to help preserve these stories, and we are very excited to share these recordings with the community in the coming months!”, Rebecca Finley shared. 

The oral history recordings will be available on the Together Trust website soon.