Worcester Life Stories

Worcester Life Stories was launched in 2020 as a collaboration between Worcester City Council's Historic Environment Record (HER) and Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust, funded by the National Lottery and Historic England. It grew from a desire to connect the HER's vast collection of 20th-century photographs with the audiences to whom they were most relevant, and with recognition from the Trust's Older Adult Mental Health Service of the power of reminiscence and Life Story work to improve health and wellbeing. This core partnership was forged to enable co-creation of two online platforms widening access to the collection and supporting local people, carers and professionals to engage with Life Story work as a therapeutic and communicative tool. From the outset, the University of Worcester's Association for Dementia Studies were engaged as partners, supporting the research, evaluation and impact. This article provides an overview of some of the key activities of Worcester Life Stories, the interaction between heritage and health approaches, and the evaluation of the two web platforms 'Know Your Place Worcester' (KYPW) and ‘Life Stories Herefordshire and Worcestershire' (LSHW), developed as part of the project.