Maerdy Archive Group

I was pleased to welcome members of the Maerdy Archive Group to the Assembly - not for the first time - a couple of weeks ago, for the launch of the Community Archives Wales online records project. You can find the Maerdy Archive Group material here.

The project has been supported by Communities@One, the Assembly's digital inclusion project, which is funded from my Ministerial budgets in the Assembly and from Objective One monies, as well as by the Heritage department in the Assembly.

CAW is a 15-month pilot project to enable eleven groups within Communities First areas throughout Wales to create their own digital archives and share them on the CAW website. The project employs 4 members of staff. It started in January 2007 and the current phase will end in September 2008. Digital community archives are collections of material in private hands that have been digitised and interpreted by community groups, enabling the communities to present their own history in their own words.

Members of the Maerdy Archive Group have been supporting my campaign to get the Maerdy Community Centre run by a broader-based group of people. Chris Bryant MP and I held a meeting two weeks ago where a lot of people indicated they wanted to become involved in the Community Centre, and later today we will be receiving the application forms from those who want to join.