Media Release 23 August 2023
Devon Development Education (DDE), a global learning charity, is delighted to announce the appointment of Jess Huffman as its Honiton Community Heritage Coordinator for an exciting new project which promises to unearth new stories revealing Devon’s long multi-cultural history in the towns of Honiton and Ilfracombe.
Jess brings almost twenty years of professional experience to the role for the Telling our Stories, Finding Our Roots Devon’s Multi-Cultural History project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. She has a successful track record in managing and facilitating community and large-scale projects, festivals and events.
Jess is a Cultural Studies graduate, trained Oral Historian and has worked on national and regional initiatives including the Beautiful Days festival, the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, the National Rural Touring Forum and Hikmat, a community interest company enabling and supporting minority ethnic communities in Devon.
Jess says: “I am delighted to have been appointed to this role. I strongly believe that embracing cultural diversity through arts and heritage-based projects like this one can nurture community cohesion, empathy and understanding for others. This can have a huge everlasting impact on us all. These projects help us to value our place in our communities and highlight the important contribution we all have to offer.”
Devon Development Education is now recruiting for a Community Heritage Coordinator for Ilfracombe.
Working in partnership with Allhallows Museum in Honiton, Jess will be instrumental in recruiting and training volunteers to collect oral history stories from people from diverse backgrounds and to research archives to uncover hidden multi-cultural stories.
In both Ilfracombe and Honiton volunteers will collect at least six oral histories and memory pieces on particular themes. Archives research will aim to uncover at least five local histories relating to multi-cultural diversity. Those interested in volunteering should contact dde@globalcentredevon.org.uk or look on Devon Development Education’s website: https://www.globalcentredevon.org.uk/
The project will take 18 months to complete, starting in summer 2023 and finishing by the end of 2024. Both oral histories and research will be added to the museums’ collections at the end of the project, enriching the collections and helping to fill gaps identified by the museums.
For further information please contact Hilda Kalap, Project Coordinator: hildatosfor@gmail.com or Tel: 07983216793