A Buckinghamshire wide community project celebrating local Paralympic Heritage 2020-2023

This exciting three-year project supported by the HS2 Community Fund will enable the National Paralympic Heritage Trust to outreach to communities across Buckinghamshire bringing Paralympic heritage and many untold local stories to life. In addition, it will engage new volunteers from across Buckinghamshire and equip them with new skills.

Together with communities along the HS2 phase 1 route we will uncover and record stories at risk of being lost, share and promote them locally and nationally while building skills across Buckinghamshire.

This will be achieved through workshops in schools and community settings providing opportunities for groups to meet Paralympians and host artist residencies. These workshops will result in the creation of e-books for the National Paralympic Heritage Trust website and culminate in group visits to the permanent displays at Stoke Mandeville.

Some workshops will see groups researching key events such as the Finmere Show which contributed to fundraising for the early Games from 1960 for over 30 years or the first Wheelchair Marathon which went through the Chalfonts. While others will work with disabled artists to develop work and displays reflective of Buckinghamshire’s Paralympic heritage. The community in Stoke Mandeville will focus specifically on developing a trail to link the displays at the National Spinal Injuries Centre to those at the National Paralympic Heritage Centre in Stoke Mandeville Stadium. Our aim is to instil pride in Buckinghamshire for what is truly a remarkable national achievement.

This project will also support a range of tailored outreach events and activities that will promote Paralympic heritage. These will include pop-up museum visits at local events with a handling collection and showcasing the work developed with schools and communities.     

To find out more about how we will work with schools and community groups please see the toolkits below which you can download as a pdf.

               

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Paralympic Heritage: Stories from Radstone Primary School

As a partner school on the 'Stories from…' project, year 4 students from Radstone Primary School in Brackley, learnt about the significance of the Paralympic torch and the lighting ceremony with our volunteer Gill Beck before making their own designs.  They also learnt about writing raps and poems with spoken word artist Robin Surgeoner, a Paralympic swimmer with 9 gold medals!  The students then met Helene Raynsford, British Paralympic rower, who shared her story and her gold medal from the Beijing 2008 Paralympics and answered lots of questions from this very engaged and resourceful class of children.  

This project is one of 22 projects that the NPHT are creating in affected communities along the first phase of the HS2 route. 

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About the HS2 Community Fund

Two funds, with a combined total of £40million, are available to local communities and businesses that are demonstrably disrupted by the construction of HS2 between London and the West Midlands; the Community and Environment Fund (CEF) and the Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF). 

The independent administration of these funds is managed on behalf of HS2 Ltd by the charity Groundwork UK who will ensure both funds remain available for applications throughout the construction of Phase One. Read the Groundwork UK annual review.

Community and business groups interested in applying for the fund can find out more at www.hs2funds.org.uk 

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Thriving Communities Grant

We are grateful for an additional grant supporting this project in its first year from Thriving Communities.

Volunteers are at the heart of our work, not only do they provide invaluable support for our day to day operations but bring a range of skills and life experiences that enrich our work.

The Thriving Communities Grant will enable us to further develop our volunteer programme and provide training opportunities for our growing volunteer base. This will include volunteers to support community workshops, conservation volunteers, oral history volunteers and volunteers to support both the Heritage Centre and the pop-up museum.

About the Thriving Communities Fund

As part of our Bigger, Better, Bolder Corporate Strategy to 2020, the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust is committed to providing high quality housing, improving the quality of life for our residents and creating thriving communities.  We set up a grant funding vehicle called ‘Thriving Communities Fund’, to provide financial support for our residents (Springboard grants) and also voluntary and community organisations operating within Aylesbury Vale (Community grants), in support of our charitable objectives.

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If you are a local community group or school along the route of HS2 in Buckinghamshire and would like to find out more about this project or if you are looking for your next volunteer opportunity please contact us at [email protected]