Share your sounds and help dementia project
A PROJECT has been launched to capture the everyday sounds which mean so much to people – and now communities across Leicestershire are being invited to take part by recording and submitting their sounds.
The contributions will then be added to an archive to be used by groups working with people living with dementia to trigger memories, conversations and pleasure.
Leicestershire County Council’s Participation Team is taking part in the ambitious national Unlocking Our Sounds project to collect and preserve sound recordings from across the county’s diverse communities.
The project is a partnership led by the British Library, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, involving 10 regional hubs across the UK.
The Midlands hub is based at the University of Leicester, which has commissioned the Participation Team to gather and create sound resources which will ultimately be used in reminiscence work with people living with dementia.
Building on the success of the Memory Plus project, which delivered multisensory reminiscence training and resources to care settings, the resources collected through the Simply Sounds project will be used to develop new sound-based activities which will be made available digitally.
The team is now calling for communities, groups and individuals across the county to create a two-minute recording of a sound that means something to them and share it with the project, under the banner Simply Sounds.
The sound recording can be of anything – as long as it’s important to the community, group or individual. It could be related to a hobby, homelife, pets, nature, work or any other area of inspiration.
Councillor Richard Blunt, county council cabinet member for heritage, leisure and arts, said: “This project gives people from all communities across Leicestershire the chance to share the sounds which are important to them, while at the same time helping to create a vital resource which will be a hugely beneficial legacy for the future.”
Anyone who would like to take part in the Simply Sounds project is asked to make a two-minute recording of their sound on a mobile phone or other device, as well as take three photographs which illustrate the sound.
There’s a short animated film which explains more about what to do on YouTube. Just search for “Simply Sounds Explainer”.
The sound and images should be emailed to SimplySounds@leics.gov.uk or send via WhatsApp on 07526 928 704.
The project aims to capture the wide diversity of life in Leicestershire, and submissions from people whose first language is not English are being particularly welcomed.
More information in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu and Polish is available at www.cultureleicestershire.co.uk/projects/ simply-sounds/
Anyone who would like to find out more about the project is invited to join in a free one-hour Zoom sessions which will give more background and a simple step-bystep guide to taking part.
The session runs on Wednesday February 24, from 2.30pm-3.30pm.
To book onto the session, please email catherine.overton@leics.gov.uk.