Throughout the pandemic Sheffield Museums focused on bringing collections, exhibitions and events to people online and in community settings. Museums by Mail was conceived to lift the spirits of those at risk of loneliness.
Introduction
Throughout the pandemic Sheffield Museums focused on bringing collections, exhibitions and events to people online and in community settings. Museums by Mail was conceived to lift the spirits of those at risk of loneliness. Throughout the second lockdown, we sent postcards featuring artworks from Sheffield’s collection, along with personal messages, to people across Sheffield – in particular, to elderly people and those in residential homes in some of the city’s highest areas of deprivation.
Our volunteers spent hours writing hundreds of personalised messages, from goodwill wishes and personal memories to interesting insights about the artworks. Every postcard that went out was unique, but each one came from the same place of kindness and a desire to help everyone find their way through the unprecedented circumstances brought about by the pandemic.
Sheffield Museums worked with several local organisations, including Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care, SACMHA Health & Social Care, Sheffield Carers, Disability Sheffield, Sheffcare and Sheffield’s network of lunch clubs who helped distribute the postcards. Through this small and simple gesture, we were able to support our communities and make a meaningful contribution to keeping them well.
The challenge
The primary challenge was how to connect with digitally excluded individuals at risk of loneliness during the pandemic.
As we moved into the post-pandemic period, our challenge was how to build awareness of the project and extend it to include adults linked to community projects who are socially isolated at any age. Hence SACMHA Health & Social Care took part in the scheme after the pandemic.
The solution
SMT promoted the scheme to community organisations and used networks to attract new organisations that work with socially isolated people. Porter Valley Primary Care Network participated in the scheme through this route.
The impact
Hearing the responses to Museums by Mail has been hugely rewarding.
In the words of Tammy Wilson, who manages the pen pal scheme at Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care:
“This year has really exacerbated loneliness in older people. Where before, our service users were able to have weekly friendly visits from our volunteers, the pandemic put a sharp halt to this. The cards from Museums Sheffield were just beautiful and have brightened the day of many a lonely older person. Many have displayed them on their fridge or wall, it makes isolated people happy just to know someone is thinking of them.”
Gillian Kearney, Voluntary Sector Liaison Team, Sheffield City Council echoed Tammy’s sentiment:
“Postcards and handwritten messages were very much appreciated by our lunch club members and many took the opportunity to write back to Museums Sheffield with their thanks. What might seem a small gesture of kindness played a big part in reminding people that they hadn’t been forgotten and were still connected to their community”.
How is the new approach being sustained?
The new approach is to market the scheme to organisations who have not participated and extend its reach to people who are socially isolated and can access postcards from a range of venues for example district health centres.
As the scheme grows, more volunteers may be recruited from community organisations to help with the internal logistics of the scheme and target the distribution of postcards to diverse groups of people.
SMT are in the research phase in finding an organisation who can support with the distribution of postcards and plan to develop resources that participants can use in their home or care setting.
Lessons learned
The distribution of postcards among individuals and group members is a good way of building positive feelings and appreciation for the scheme.
SMT continue to reach out to more people via community groups and organisations as the scheme builds. We are mindful of the issues faced by people who encounter digital exclusion and keen to develop new ways to address some of the barriers to participation.
The scheme is a way of connecting people who may not visit the museum or cultural institutions due to social barriers, their wellbeing or social isolation with the city’s collections. By taking that first step, the museums are building bridges that enable the collections to play a role in peoples’ health, wellbeing and home life.