Connecting, Sharing, Learning project

Adam Rimmer, IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund Coordinator: “So now to introduce our speakers Charlotte Pearce is Partnerships Manager at IWM who led on the network project Connecting, Sharing, Learning and she is joined by one of our project partners Carole Chapman of the University of the Third Age to share her reflections and experiences and I’ll now hand over to Charlotte.“

Charlotte Pearce, Partnership Manager, IWM: “Thank you Adam and hello everyone thanks very much for joining us and I’m just going to share my screen so we can start our presentation. Just checking Adam that you can see that okay?

Adam Rimmer: “Yep, all seems to be working.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Fabulous okay, so yes so, we’re here today to talk about a project called Connecting, Sharing, Learning. As you can see from the slide that the full title was ‘Sustaining relationships between collections and older communities during the Covid 19 pandemic’. So, this project took place between July of 2020 and June of 2021, and we received kind support from the Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund delivered by the Museums Association. So, in this presentation I’m just going to talk you through why we put it together, what we achieved, and sort of the key lessons learned and it's brilliant that Carole is here as well, one of our project working group so that she can share her reflections too at various points.

So, starting with why we wanted to do this project and as Adam mentioned in his introduction, we run the War and Conflict Subject Specialist Network and we work with people all around the world who look at the same subject matter as IWM, so conflict from the First World War through to the present day. And so, within our network we run various projects, activities, and events like this and so we wanted to think about how we could do something during the pandemic, in particular reaching out to older people. As we all know the Covid pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on people aged 70 and above, whether they're in their own homes or in care settings both in terms of course their physical welfare and but also that sense of isolation and not being able to see family and friends, perhaps not being able to go out as much as previously and talking with our network this was a group that people are really keen to engage.

As well as that the kind of second point on this slide is that the pandemic has had an effect on our network itself and so, we have museums like ourselves, we have archives, libraries, academics, researchers, creative practitioners, lots of different people but in many different ways the pandemic has had a significant impact on our activity. For example, if you have a physical building that people usually go into and that has been closed for a significant period over the past year or so. So, it was thinking about how we could create a project that would benefit our network as well and help bring our collections out to people as well. 

As well as that, we already had some established relationships with care providers, so in particular a group called Age Exchange, which is a charity in London and also Barchester Care because they have a care home which is located very close to IWM Duxford and so even before this project they were really keen to work with us on something, so this was a really good opportunity to try something.

And the fourth point there at the bottom reflects that we as a museum and as a network we also wanted to mark key anniversaries that were within the living memory of older people, so the Battle of Britain, the anniversary of that was last summer, of course, some people might not remember it but you know they might have had connections to the Second World War and their relatives, for example. But also, Greenham Common, so the creation of the peace camp there in 1981. So, we wanted to mark that anniversary as well and think about that, so kind of those four things packaged together that was very much why we wanted to do the project and what we wanted to do was to create a program of digital outreach which took the form of activity packs and virtual programming, so we're going to talk about a bit more about that in a moment.

So the aims of the project are really nicely summarised in the name of the project itself so: Connecting, Sharing, Learning: Connecting together the collections that might have been behind closed doors, the communities who we couldn't go out and interact with in person as we normally would but also the organisations, such as members of our network so it's bringing those together during a particularly challenging time. The sharing aspect is thinking about overcoming those barriers so even though we were restricted as to what we could do how we could share collections differently with audiences. And learning as well was really crucial so thinking about the lifelong learning experiences of our target audience but also the ways in which our network could learn, and we could reflect on our own working practices and perhaps think about different ways that we could work together going forward. 

So, when we created this project we worked with three main groups of people to bring it all together, so the focus group first of all, we did an open call within our network last year and just asked people who were interested to come forward and to work with us on it, so we worked with over 20 members of our network across the whole project and what we asked of them was to provide sort of between three and five digital collections assets so things like photos and film and sound that we're ready to go that we could package up to create something collectively and also, people were asked if they were interested in virtual programming so that means sort of doing a zoom session just like this but directly into care homes. There was also opportunity as well as with our established contacts about sharing contact, sharing our content with their own contacts as well and Carole can talk about that in just a moment and we as you can see, we also had a student placement who was involved as well so it was really nice to get lots of different people involved in our focus group.

Alongside that we had the steering group which was made up of our network members and also external experts who were really knowledgeable about, sort, of digital outreach or working with older people and they provided, sort of those checks and balances if you like so they were looking at what we were producing reviewing it, making suggestions, and again, you know they could help distribute what we were producing to their own contacts.

And then finally and crucially it was the care providers themselves, so I’ve already mentioned Age Exchange and Barchester Care. For this project we also reached out to Age UK in Manchester, and they were really keen to take part and it was brilliant to have them involved because right from the outset we could conduct audience consultation. So, we were able to value the care providers, sort of ask people what they were interested in, what they would enjoy and create something accordingly. And of course, through those channels it meant we're actually able to reach people. 

So, I wonder if Carole, if you wanted to maybe tell us a bit more about your background and why you wanted to get involved in this project as a member of the focus group? 

Carole Chapman, University of the Third Age: “Yes, good afternoon. My involvement I think came from two sources; first of all my previous experience with the Imperial War Museum,  which is what led me into the subject specialist network in the first place, having been a history teacher and having experienced for many years the supportive  role which the Imperial War Museum played and  then in retirement that continuing particularly with the centenary of the First World War and Lives of the First World War, which many people will have had experience of. In Portsmouth where I live we had actually had a project on Portsmouth and the battle of Jutland, and all of those experiences led me into the subject specialist network and therefore interested me in this project. The second strand of being interested was that it was such a good fit with what I was very active in in retirement and that is the University of the Third Age. The University of the Third Age, as I’m sure many people will know, is for retired or semi-retired people who want to continue their learning. U3A is a learning organisation, mutually supportive self-help and learning by sharing with others, therefore this project with its goals of connecting, sharing and learning an emphasis on lifelong learning was a very, very close fit and it therefore appealed to me on a personal level but also as an active member of the University of the Third Age as well. 

Charlotte Pearce: “Brilliant thank you Carole and just to remind people if you've got questions for myself or Carole just pop them in the chat and we can come to them at the end but yeah we'll now kind of move on to give you a flavour of what our activities actually looked like, what we did. So, we split the project into two main phases, so the first phase as I mentioned was tied to the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, so 80 years ago last year, and so the period between July and December was dedicated to that subject but more broadly the Second World War and in particular life in 1940, so looking at things like rationing, looking at evacuees, thinking about clothing, what people did in terms of jobs and also, you know, some really fun things in there as well like animals in wartime. So, when we spoke to the care providers who obviously were passing on our questions to the audiences and they were saying that you know they did want something fun and interesting and something that was quite familiar but then also introducing aspects that perhaps they didn't know much about before. So what we did with all of that information together was create an activity booklet as you can see on the slide there that's just a screen grab of it and it had some prompt questions on there, so the idea was that people would work with this either, you know, with their friends or perhaps with their carer to kind of talk about things to reminisce and to learn a little bit more so the activity booklet had prompt questions like this and you can see an image there which obviously was designed to stimulate people's memories but also, you know, think about different ways in which, in which the war affected people but we had things like colouring in sheets, we had a word search in there as well so there's a bit of something for everybody really. And as it mentions there, we also produced a DVD that we sent out to people and the DVD had a series of short films which covered all the topics that I’ve mentioned, and it was just another way for people to engage, so you could look at the film and the booklet independently or obviously look at them together and it just meant people could return to them at their leisure just, sort of do you know whatever they wanted. So, I know Carole, you were helping to sort of spread the word about these I know particularly in the U3A you did get a really great response didn't you. 

Carole Chapman: “Yes, very surprising actually this response which we had because what I was doing was, I was pulling together a collection of articles from the local press, the Portsmouth Evening News as it was at that stage, it still exists, it supports with News now and I wrote a very short article about what I was doing and what the project's aims were for our national U3A magazine, Third Age Matters, and there was a huge response from people who had stories about the Battle of Britain and indeed the Blitz and they wanted to share them, and they saw it as an opportunity to actually share these stories. And it became very obvious that some of this was absolutely incredible, it was people's own memories, but it was also memories of parents and other relatives, and it went right across the country that was the other thing about it. So, this was actually from a U3A point of view something absolutely ideal because it came about by a process of members wanting it and the response was that we decided that we would put a selection of these accounts which we were getting from people on the national U3A website, and I think Adam you're going to drop that in to the link for that into the chat box so that people can have a look if they want to. And it's still there and there is a great variety of accounts, and we are actually very aware that this is it’s a good historical resource and we are preserving it as an archive and it will be permanently in the hands of the Second World War experience very, very soon. But it just shows that sometimes you underestimate what is out there when you actually produce a very short article and people want it and they respond to it, so it was it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, thank you.” 

Charlotte Pearce: “Brilliant, thank you Carole so it just shows how, you know, you have unexpected outcomes from projects like this sometimes so, you know, the fact that people felt that they could respond and share all of their memories as well it was just fantastic. Obviously one thing we were sort of thinking about as well throughout all of this was the fact that, of course, while we tried to make our resources very sort of light-hearted, of course, some of this might bring up quite upsetting memories sometimes, you know, so we had a brilliant training session with Age Exchange which was sort of looking at, you know, how to respond to people when they perhaps get distressed or emotional about something and you know that's why it was really great that we were working with care providers who 

already had those skills as well, so we ourselves were learning about it but also the people we were working with were sort of experts in that and they were able to help facilitate that because doing it remotely meant that, you know, we couldn't be in the room, we couldn't chat to people as we might have liked to have done, so I think that was a really important element of this as well. So just to talk then about the second part, so we conducted some evaluation halfway through so that we could sort of see what went well and what we could improve, and we took that into the second phase of the project which was from January to June of this year.

So as I mentioned we were thinking very much about the anniversary of Greenham Common women's peace camp and so that the women there who were protesting against nuclear weapons but we thought it'd be great to look more broadly at the theme of women, war and peace, so looking at stories from, sort of, the First World War era so you know the suffrage movement for example, looking at women's roles in the two world wars but then also, sort of, since then as well, going right up to Greenham Common so, you know, it's a really great opportunity to try different things and again, you know, we had an activity booklet of a similar style to the first one, we provided a timeline of key events and this was aimed really at the care providers themselves so that they had some of the background needed to be able to initiate discussion if any particular topics came up that perhaps they weren't familiar with they had this sort of point of reference there. We had story cards, so these were the stories of 10 women throughout that whole period and, sort of, a brief summary of what they did and to be used as a kind of springboard for discussion and again, we wanted that sort of interactive element. 

So, this time instead of a film, we decided to create a podcast and we produced that on a CD. So, all of these resources are available online and later on we can share the link to them so you can download them and use them in your own activity but we really wanted to make sure that our audiences were able to access it, so if they didn't use the internet, for example, so we produce actual physical DVDs and CDs and booklets that we posted out to people. So again, you know Carole was able to get involved at this point and making use of contacts that you had within Portsmouth wasn't it?” 

Carole Chapman: “Yes, during the time that we were actually doing a centenary project for the First World War on Jutland, we had established a strong partnership with the University of Portsmouth and in fact, that continued and between 2018 and 2019 my own U3A in Portsmouth which is called Portsdown U3A had actually been working with the university on a project which they had started but which we were very interested in in as well and it was called Women's Community Activism in Portsmouth since 1960: the hidden history of a naval town, and again you'll find the link in the chat box for that. And obviously that covered a wide variety of activities but one of the things of course it did cover was protest, concern about nuclear weapons, Greenham and all the things that were directly relevant to this project that we were doing now with connecting, sharing and learning so it was great actually again to be able to make connections to have sort of joined up thinking  because I got in touch with Dr Laurel Foster at the university who we've been working with, and they were very pleased to make their resources, which we'd actually created for the project which we've been working on in Portsmouth, available to this project and actually to work with the Imperial War Museum as well. So, I think it, I think it's good when you can do that because again, you know, Connecting, Sharing, Learning that's what it was, it was Connecting, Sharing, Learning in practice, so we were all very pleased actually to be able to do that. Thank you, Charlotte.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Thank you. So, as well as the activity packs that we've just described and we've just talked about, another element that we put together was virtual programming, so this is where we were delivering zoom sessions directly into care homes. So, as I mentioned, we already had links with Barchester Care, and so we had a good network within that and as well as that we asked our focus group, so the group working on the project if they knew of any local care homes that wanted to dial in as well. And so we ran a series of sessions, so you can see a picture of one there, so that's actually a quiz underway; we had things like quizzes, we had short talks with Q&A and basically, the idea was it was it was quite short and snappy because residents said that, you know, they didn't want to be sitting there for a long time and it was sort of between 15 minutes and half an hour maximum but also, we recorded them as well so if someone couldn't attend or if they preferred to watch it back, sort of in the in the comfort of their own room, for example, so you know if you had access to an iPad or something like that and it was another way of making that available. And you got involved in a couple of those didn't you, Carole as well?”

Carole Chapman: “Yes I did, can you still hear me alright?”

Charlotte Pearce: “Yes.”

Carole Chapman: “Good, I had a sudden feeling that my system was playing up, but it seems to be all right now. Yes what I did was I did some interactive sort of crosswords; the one which I did for the first part of the project on the Battle of Britain was very much influenced by the fact that I had seen as I was researching the press very high number of advertisements for cinemas, there were far more cinemas of course at that stage, that's what people did.

The other thing that influenced me on that was knowledge of my own parents. My own parents had actually got married in 1943 at the age of 20 and I knew from them that one of the things that they did all the time when my father was on leave was, they went to the cinema and I thought, well, people will possibly remember and their memories will also be jogged by the fact that there was very popular film and other acts available in the 1940s. So, for the Battle of Britain I actually did a crossword which was on stars of the 1940s, which actually, again, you know, I was, I was pleasantly surprised because it actually provoked quite a lot of discussion, you know, if you sort of were coming up with someone like Glenn Miller then people would remember that and they would associate a lot of other memories with it. 

For the other one for the second part of the project, again I thought well context because we're talking about the 1980s here, how much do people actually remember about the 1980s? So, I did a sort of ‘who was who in the 1980s’ for the crossword for that. And again, you know, it provoked other memories and one of the people that I’d actually included was Shirley Williams because we made some reference to the setting up of the Social Democratic Party and the Gang of Four and in fact, Shirley Williams had died just a few days before we actually did that,  so it was an appropriate, I felt it was it was appropriate sort of tribute which we actually had at that time. But a lot of people remembered things as a result of thinking about those particular images, thank you, Charlotte.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Yeah, absolutely because yeah as we've been saying it was designed to be interesting, designed to be fun but of course, yeah, it led to lots of discussions and in fact the care homes said that, you know, we were only with them for a short time but they were talking about it for the rest of the day, which is just wonderful and a lot of people really look forward to those sessions every week you know because it was something out of the ordinary and, you know, a bit of something to kind of take your mind off things, particularly during the pandemic. 

So, just want to move on just to talk a little bit about evaluation and how we kind of got people's responses to what we were producing. So, we were able to do that in a couple of different ways really, so obviously the quantitative element so you know the number of people we reached, the number of packs we produced, the number of people that came to the sessions etc and so obviously that was important but if think for this project because it had that focus on well-being and connectivity, I think the qualitative element was perhaps even more important. And so, we tried different ways of capturing people’s feedback; we tried online surveys, we had printed postcards that we sent out with the activity packs that people could return and we, through email we got anecdotal feedback via the care providers and we're also hoping to arrange phone and, sort of, online interviews over zoom, that kind of thing. And this touches on one of the questions at the bottom there because we, talking with the care providers, obviously wanted to create questions that people would understand and in particular people living with dementia wouldn't find too challenging. And so, it was a mixture of, kind of, you know, selecting the smiley face there but then also if people were able to provide a bit more detail, open-ended questions as well. But the evaluation was probably the most tricky part of the whole project; we sort of anticipated that because of the nature of the project, the fact that it was all done remotely, you know. If we'd been able to kind of go in and sit down and chat with people and I think, you know, it would have been a lot more effective, so all in all we didn't get a massive response rate of less than 10 percent which was a bit disappointing but speaking with the care providers, particularly Age Exchange, they gave a real insight into this because they were doing their own activities, and they were, they were seeing the same thing basically, and they said that, you know, the pandemic had such a huge impact on people's physical and mental well-being and so it wasn't always possible for them to participate. And so it did make the anecdotal feedback really important, it gave us that real insight into how people were responding and so effectively the staff at care homes and carers in individual homes they were sort of there in our place if you like. So, we weren't able to be there, but they were asking the questions for us.

So, in terms of audience reach we produced 600 copies of our activity packs, and these were posted out you can see in the picture there they're sort of being packaged up and getting ready to go. We had 11 of the virtual sessions and as I said we also were able to count the number of people who watched back the recordings and I think it was great the fact that we reached audiences in different parts of the UK, so because we were working with network members who were based in different areas so from Dumfries and Galloway right the way down to Cornwall, from Northeast England all the way across to North Wales and sort of various places in between, so you know we had a real good opportunity there to reach people far and wide. But as I said, I think you know that the feedback itself was incredibly useful and important and I’ve just picked out three quotes there that really illustrate the theme and the aim of our project. 

So, the connecting parts; one care home resident thought it was amazing to have Zoom, she had never used it before, but it was lovely for, you know, us to connect in different parts of the country. 

The sharing element, care providers said that they learned a lot of things about the people they were looking after that they never even mentioned before, so like Carole said before, you know, about the films, for example, you know, they might sort of say about who their favourite film star was or have an anecdote about, you know, something that happened to them when they were younger, and you know, they'd never shared that before so that was just amazing.

And then yeah, the learning aspect as well so as we said you know the idea was to provide material that was familiar but also kind of pushing people a little bit to learn something new and I think this was the case particularly for the women war and peace activity pack.  You know, a lot of people said they didn't really know much about the topic but they learnt quite a lot and interestingly with that one as well, one person said that she felt she could relate to it and not just as a woman but also because we were talking about themes of women being stereotyped or, you know, women being restricted in what they could do, and she said she'd faced that herself; as an older person there's a lot of ageism so a lot of assumptions about what she can and she can't do and so she said she related to it in that way as well, so that was really, really interesting. 

And then just to kind of start wrapping things up but we also obviously wanted to evaluate what our partners, what our focus and steering groups thought about it as well as well as the care providers, so we created surveys and had feedback sessions so that people could share with us what they'd learnt, what they found challenging, and it just helps to bring the project together, so I wonder Carole if you could maybe reflect on, you know, what you got out of the project.”

Carole Chapman: “Yes, well I think that, again really two things, I mean obviously the response which I encountered from the U3A which in some ways was unexpected in scale was a very welcome bonus and has really taken on a life of its own. The other thing, though, I was very impressed by what we did initially we had some work from Age Exchange on reminiscence and I found that very useful because it's something I am actually interested in; how people remember things and how often reminiscence is much later than the events that it actually refers to and I think for the sort of work that I particularly am doing at the moment in U3A that is very, very helpful. I mean, one of the projects that I have some involvement with at the moment is on the Kindertransport and we're actually having a day series of events on that on the 2nd of December and I think the whole business of how people remember and when they remember and how it affects later generations all of that I found was very much addressed by how we were thinking about reminiscence, the work we did with Age Exchange and how we were actually approaching things with the audiences here that we were working with, so I actually found it very useful all round. Thank you.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Brilliant, thank you. And yeah just to pull out a few of the comments overall so what the whole group said, so the challenges first of all some of which, you know, we did anticipate at the beginning. So, the fact that we were delivering this during the pandemic meant that at different times, sort of people's capacity to participate was limited or changed, particularly people going on and off furlough which is quite unpredictable but also, yeah, the access to the physical collections as well when buildings were closed, and so because of both of those things we designed this project so that, you know, it wasn't too much of a demand on people's time and,  you know, being very clear about deadlines and when we needed content to be pulled together and, you know, asking for a small amount from each participant, so that it was realistic.

And again, yeah, the tight project time frame that only took place over the course of a year and so, again, it's just making sure everyone was in the loop and, you know, it was, it was just an opportunity to work together in a new way; we didn't meet once at all as a group in person,, it was all done online. And yeah, they were the press opportunities were more limited because again of colleagues in different organisations being on furlough but also obviously the competing priorities. So, for example, within IWM you know parts of the project coincided with the museum’s reopening so there were different kinds of priorities and things like that but still we did manage to get some press and obviously the website that Carole mentioned but also you went on the radio as well didn't you, the U3A radio to promote it?.”

Carole Chapman: “Yes, we actually did a podcast on the subject which, again, you know, was something very different for some of the people who actually participated in it. I mean, one of the people who spoke on the podcast was actually over 90 and a real store of U3A for many years, and he actually said that he thought what we had done and what we were doing so closely accorded with what the founders of U3A, bearing in mind that U3A in the UK is approaching its 40th anniversary next year, what the founders had actually intended but it was in a way and using technology which they would never have thought of, of course at the time when they'd actually started. So, I think it's, it's very much I think as well proof of the fact that older people embrace new things, new technology and they actually enjoy them.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Yeah, definitely and links back to the, the comment I was making before when someone said, you know, don't make assumptions about me because of my age, you know, I’m, you know, really willing to try these new things and, you know, the wonders of technology. 

So yeah, very briefly yeah, that obviously was one of the successes the fact we were using the technology and collaborating digitally, and we were using collections in a new way, you know, packaging them up differently, you know, you can't kind of access them in person but there's different ways that you can do it. 

The skills development was really fantastic, you know, Carole obviously has mentioned there about sort of getting some really good advice about reminiscence but as well as that some of our project partners hadn't done any kind of virtual programming before or anything like that, so it was a great opportunity to give that a go. And what's brilliant is that several people have said that, you know, they'd love to do something like this again in the future so this is sort of provided a really nice model of working.

So just to finish then, just to kind of talk about those lessons learned, so yeah, I mean it's been a fantastically rewarding project, I would say all round, you know, there were various challenges along the way which we knew there would be, this was a pilot program for IWM, we've not done anything like this before but, you know, what we can do is take sort of the best bits of it and also the, the points from the evaluation and use that to create that framework so that, you know, internally we can do something like this again but also you know everyone listening here, you know, you're very welcome to make use of what we've done. On the IWM website we've got a page dedicated to this project so you can read a bit more about it and you can access the resources that we've produced and so, you know, you're very welcome to use that as well and I just hope that, you know, it's given you a bit of inspiration to do something going forward, so even though this project was conceived during the pandemic there's no reason why, you know, we couldn't continue to work in the same way going forward, and so, yeah, it's been it's been really fantastic and just, yeah, very enjoyable. So, that's the end of our presentation and in the time we've got remaining we've got time to take any questions, so I’ll just stop sharing my screen.” 

Adam Rimmer: “We've had a few questions come through. I’ll actually start with this one because it sort of leads on from what you were just saying, Charlotte, about available resources and it's from Alan saying: “I am both an IWM volunteer and a U3A vice chair. Are there any packs that we could use to guide or lead a series of U3A group meetings with minimal effort by the group leaders?”

Carole Chapman: “I think that's, that's an interesting one. I presume you mean, Alan, meetings which would be about historical subjects or yeah. What I would suggest is that, is it easy enough to put my email Adam in in the chat box?”

Adam Rimmer: “If you're comfortable sharing it with everyone, that’s absolutely fine.”

Carole Chapman: “I’ve got a U3A email because I think probably that would be something which I could pass on to the relevant people for you who could actually help you with that, and indeed anybody else who's in the same sort of position. So shall I do that Adam? It will be easier if I do it. I’m going to do that now, Alan, so that you can see that.”

Alan: “Thanks, Carole. “

Adam Rimmer: “Brilliant. So, I’ll go back to the top so a question from Keith and it says: “Major events for heritage railways and 1940 weekends often involves much nostalgia and dressing up but next year I’m keen that at the East Lancashire Railway we do have a more focused involvement of older people to be able to gather and reminisce rather than just being part of a large crowd as tends to happen at such a large event. It's a bit of an open question, actually, but it says has anyone had any experience in organising such activity?” So, don't know if Charlotte or Carole have any advice for that or if anyone else has any advice for Keith about, sort of organising such an activity, sort of, do post it in the chat as well.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously the project we've just done has been conducted online but yeah obviously there's no reason why you couldn't do similar things in person. Certainly IWM has done various outreach projects over the years but I mean, I think something I’ve learned from doing this project is kind of establishing really good contacts so, you know, making use of Age UK for example and the local branches that they have because they're a really good way of reaching people who might be interested, so they can sort of advertise that you know something's going on and people are welcome to come and that kind of thing. And yeah, and I think just sort of thinking about the covid situation, which, you know, sadly we're far from out of, I think that something that we're thinking about as well is doing sort of hybrid style events, so, you know, being able to be there in person if you wish to but for some people who perhaps don't feel comfortable or perhaps can't travel or whatever having an element where they can either join it live online or having a recording available so they're kind of the main things that I would think about if I was doing something like that.” 

Adam Rimmer: “Brilliant, thank you. So, a question from Amy saying: “A very interesting talk, how did you approach setting up the zoom sessions with care homes? For example, did they need support in sourcing tech such as laptops and setting up?” 

Charlotte Pearce: “We were really fortunate in the because this was a pilot  program we were in touch with Barchester and they already have that kind of thing set up and because they do various other activities as well online, and so there wasn't really a massive demand for that on this occasion but, of course we you know we do understand that, you know, digital poverty is a very important issue and we don't want to alienate people just because they don't have those resources and so, yeah if I suppose if you wanted to reach out to a care home for example that didn't already have that set up and perhaps thinking about, you know, sources of funding to be able to get the technology or  perhaps, you know, the council or a local library or something like that might be able to kind of help set up the equipment. As I say, because we had to hit the ground running with this project and you know we were lucky and that it was a case of just connecting and they were ready but yeah it's definitely something that you know we can think about going forward about what if people don't have that to hand.”

Adam Rimmer: “Brilliant. An interesting comment from Linda who says: “I’m very pleased that you had a good response from elderly people through your project and imagine that the names IWM and U3A aided the success of the project.” And she says that while attempting to get my local history group who were mainly very, very elderly to meet online during the pandemic came to absolutely nothing and at a second face-to-face meeting she suggested that they investigate Zoom etc for the future, but this was completely rejected, and she was a bit disappointed. Obviously, Charlotte and Carole you've mentioned that you found that the people you worked with actually engaged really well with technology and the opportunities but I suppose did you come across anyone who was perhaps a bit anti-technology, which isn't necessarily sort of focused on just elderly people, you get a anti sort of technology people through all generations, but did you come across anyone like that during your project?”

Carole Chapman: “Certainly in my own U3A locally I have done. What we've tried to do actually locally during the pandemic particularly is, and in fact generally really, have a sort of buddy system where people who are happy to use technology and know about it actually attempt to support people who are not so keen and not so sure. Obviously it's been difficult under the conditions of lockdown etc but it has happened in a number of cases, and I wouldn't say it's been a hundred percent successful, but there certainly have been some successes where people who otherwise would not be too happy to engage actually have gradually managed to. I mean, I think the other thing is that some people have been helped by, well, their grandchildren particularly, I know of a couple of cases where that has actually worked. I mean, I think everybody is very clear that the best thing is if you can actually have face-to-face meetings but in the situation that we've been in I think quite a lot of people have accepted that we needed to do the best that we could under the circumstances and hybrid things have actually been popular.”

Charlotte Pearce: “Yeah, definitely. As I say, that's kind of what we're thinking about going forward and yeah, within this project that's why we had the kind of activity pack element as well as the Zoom sessions so, you know, for people that preferred to have something physical in their hands that they could look at in their own time and that kind of thing, you know, that suited them but then for people who are willing to give it a go and you know it's, yeah, it you know it's a challenge obviously to sort of convince people of the benefits of it but  you know as Carole said you know getting younger generations involved perhaps is a nice way of doing it as well.”

Adam Rimmer: “Yeah, we've had some comments from people saying: “Yes buddying helps” and “Yep, having help from daughters” and things like that, so yeah people seem to be in agreement and we've had some nice just comments come through as well saying thank you for the talks.

Charlotte Higman asks: “Are the IWM activity packs available to download and use with memory groups? I think you've been linking a few things already Charlotte haven't you?

Charlotte Pearce: “Yeah, I’ll just pop the link in again just at the bottom just so it's a bit more obvious because there's a few things that have been coming in but yes, and basically yeah we've got all the resources are there online so yeah feel free to make use of them however you like and, you know, if you do use them it'd be wonderful ,you know, if you could let us know how you got on as well. It’s a nice legacy of what we were doing.”

Adam Rimmer: “Right, we've got a few more minutes. I think I’ve caught all of the questions if I haven't answered anyone asked any of anyone's questions please do repost it in the chat. Just a reminder to everyone as well that this is being recorded so you can access it afterwards and we'll send out a survey as well but if nothing else is coming through, a few more thank you comments, thank you but yes I just want to say thank you very much as well to our speakers for such an interesting presentation and thank you to those as well for watching and joining us and for you for your questions as well and if you do have any more questions obviously you can contact us at IWM on the [email protected] email address and Carole's put her email address in as well but thank you Charlotte for linking it  but I think that's it, so thank you again for everyone attending, thank you, thanks very much.”