The Manchester Culture Awards took place at Manchester Convention Centre on Saturday 9 November, with The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust being named as finalist in the ‘Inspiring Innovation’ category for its project Coming in From the Cold (CIFTC).

CIFTC is a three year project developed by the Trust that supports BAME communities across Greater Manchester to deliver and archive their heritage projects, increasing their representation in archival collections. Project staff include archivist, Jo Robson, trainee archivist, Laila Benhaida, Digital Officer, Drew Ellery and Community Engagement Manager, Jennie Vickers.

Between January 2018 and June 2019 CIFTC received 59 project enquiries from different communities. Of those they gave content, budget and application advice to 26 projects and also supported 25 projects in delivery, through training, facilitation, events, exhibitions, publications and archiving. Project staff have developed a model of good practice based on their experience of co-produced work with communities, which has been shared via a number of national conferences, professional journals and sector publications.

All of the project material collected through Coming In From the Cold has been archived at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah race Relations Resource Centre, which is part of the University of Manchester Library Special Collections.