The Italian Connection in Nottingham was an intergenerational project, which concluded officially in March 2010, made possible through Their Past, Your Future (TPYF2) funding. It resulted in the creation of oral history recordings, transcripts, the publication of a book and the development of a website. These products of the project celebrate the Italian community and their contribution to Nottingham.
The project was a partnership between Nottingham City Library and Information Service, the City Regional and International team, two Italian organisations: the Basilicata Region Association in Nottingham and ACLI Patronato and the Education Improvement Partnership for St. Ann's and Sneinton. It led to a better understanding between all partners involved.
As Roger Parish, the project lead said,"The project has demonstrated the value of partnership working, and that one service can't do everything on its own. It has also shown the value of being creative. Local studies might seem dusty and academic to some people but this kind of work has brought it alive, so there is a community engagement aspect. There has also been excellent team working in the Library Service, with everyone bringing in different skills. As a result, the staff's confidence has increased."
The aim of the project was to create an historical record of post-War Italian experience in Nottingham against a background of War-time and pre-War experiences.
There are strong Italian links to Nottingham over many years, including the existence of an Italian Prisoner of War camp during the Second World War. The difficult economic conditions in Italy, which followed this war, led many people in the 1950s and later to seek a better life in Nottingham. Their story is not well documented and this project therefore sought to establish a record of their experiences through engagement with senior members of the community and their families. People from the immediate post-War generation are now in their 70s and 80s, so, in ten years' time, it may be too late to collect their stories.
Two local schools (year 5 pupils) were involved in creating a publication and Teacher's Resource along with web-based material. Pupils developed key skills in how to interview people, and other journalism skills as part of the project.
There was also an aim to provide positive images of, and role models for, new arrivals to the City. In one Nottingham library alone, people from over 100 different national backgrounds are customers. For these new arrivals, the Italian Connection provides a positive story of how immigrants, who typically arrived with little in the way of financial resources or English language skills, have successfully established themselves in the city.
The Italian Connection will be sustained through the website, resources and the networks developed. One option is for the library service or community members to seek to identify further funding sources to develop the work.
The Library Service will be supporting a wider East Midlands bid by another organisation around similar themes. In the future, it is hoped that some of the Italian community members would go back into schools to share their experiences. Already, Italian language taster sessions have been held with children in some schools as a result of connections made through this project.
The celebratory event at the Council House in Nottingham offered the opportunity for the many participants in the project to come together and for the Library Service to thank members of the Italian community for their contribution. There were presentations from young people, volunteers and staff which represented the many elements of the project.
There was a lot of verbal feedback after the celebration event about how guests had enjoyed the event. One text message was sent by one of the interviewees on the same day after the event had finished:"Thank you very much for a lovely day and the book is very interesting of what I have read. Say a big thank you to the team for all their hard work."
The Chairman of one of the local Italian organisations, who was himself unable to attend the event at the council house due to illness, stated that he had heard only good reports about how everyone had enjoyed it.
Roberto Prati, a volunteer and interviewee, said of the event,"The book presentation was a great success, Pam (his wife) and I met many interesting people including many I had not seen for over 40 years, mostly friends of my parents. They saw my name on the screen and one by one during the afternoon came up to speak with me. It brought back many happy memories. One of the men who spoke with me told me that our fathers worked together at Stanton Iron Works. We shared a table with 6 Italian widows who were great fun, many had not been involved in the book and would have liked to contribute with their stories. It was very nice to see the young people from the two schools involved and their contribution added to the event.
Overall it was fantastic to see so many Italians under one roof sharing a truly wonderful day. My thanks to all involved."
The East Midlands-wide Picture the Past site will provide access to images from the project. And the web presence and Teachers' Resource could easily be adapted for use with other communities.
For more detailed information on this case study please visit the case study section on the MLA research website.