As National Volunteers Week draws to a close, we thought it would only be fitting to save the best volunteers until last.
Established in 2013, Education 4 Action is a team of enthusiastic volunteers with invaluable knowledge and experience of the past we inherit. They advise and support the ongoing work at the Miners Hall and the development of the charity. Likewise, they have greatly supported the staff of Redhills and, indeed, the entire Coalfield community.
They have supported the opening of the doors of Redhills to the public by offering tours of the Miners Hall, created the Dave Hopper Memorial Lecture, created education programmes through their own lived experiences and supported cultural storytelling, such as the story of Category D communities commemorated for a Durham Brass Festival commission with LYR.
They have pursued trusts and foundations to support their projects and spend many hours bid writing to bring projects to life. We were delighted to see the outcomes of projects, such as the successful Mining the Memories video commission, which you can view here:
E4A, as they’re affectionately known, put on their own evenings of songs and celebration and have recently moved into collectively authoring a book on the past we inherit, which they hope to publish at the end of this year.
We are blessed to have had them work with us, honoured to know them, and completely blown away by their passion for educating people on the spirit and resilience of our Coalfield community.
Volunteering is integral to keeping our mining heritage alive in County Durham; some of the E4A members also volunteer at the Durham Mining Museum, a physical and digital archive within Spennymoor Town Hall. The Mining Museum currently requires new volunteers. They’re looking for people who are interested and committed to the museum’s work and willing to learn while volunteering.
If you can offer some of your time, whether on a Weekly,Fortnightly or Monthly basis, they would love to hear from you enquiries@dmm.org.uk