The Family History Society volunteers and its partners at the Heritage Hub have won a Volunteers award. Below is an extract from the project accompanied by a photo of the GFHS volunteers with the award.

The project spearheaded by the Gloucestershire Archives has been recognised nationally for outstanding work involving volunteers.

The annual award, sponsored by the National Archives and the Archives and Records Association (ARA), was given to Gloucestershire Archives for their work on the ‘Bigger Better Stronger: Archive Volunteering Re-Booted’ project.

The panel were impressed by the vision and creativity of the project, the range of community partners involved and the level of audience engagement and development that was achieved.

The judges said: “Overall, we saw something inspiring and transformative in the design, management and implementation of this project by the archive service team that sets a new benchmark for the sector. Congratulations to everyone involved in Bigger, Better, Stronger.”

Cllr Lynden Stowe, cabinet member responsible for Gloucestershire Archives, said “Gloucestershire Archives play an important role in gathering, keeping and sharing the documented history of Gloucestershire and beyond.

“However, the real community impact the Heritage Hub partners are having on local people is awe-inspiring, and this is only made possible by all the hard work of staff and volunteers – we are very proud to have received this national award, and I would like to say a personal thank you to everyone involved in the project.”