Meet Our Networkers in the West Midlands

Regional networker

Julia Letts

My current work revolves around training, interviewing, audio editing and creating podcasts, and managing oral history projects for the heritage, community and education sectors. This takes me all over the West Midlands and beyond where I advise and work with museums, galleries, schools, councils, community groups, arts organisations and wildlife charities. My career started as a BBC Radio Producer and branched into oral history after working as a producer on ‘The Century Speaks’ in 1999. I am an OHS accredited trainer and a key adviser on working with schools and young people. I co-produced the school resources on the OHS website and am a member of the Creative Special Interest Group. Do have a look at my website or give me a call.

Regional networker

Margaret Tohill

Regional Networker

Siobhán Stevenson

My passion for oral history began when I worked as a researcher on the BBC/British Library project ‘The Century Speaks’. I realised ordinary people live the most extraordinary lives, but most of us never know it. I work with organisations in the cultural heritage sector, charities, students and volunteers, advising on project logistics and training them in project management, interviewing and recording techniques, audio editing and re-purposing content for physical exhibition and digital distribution. I have worked on a wide range of oral history projects conducting interviews with a variety of people from Silversmiths in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter to the life stories of those growing up in Britain for the Museum of Youth Culture. I have also trained project volunteers from community groups to interview and summarise testimonies of survivors of the Bangladesh Liberation War and stories of Asian migration from East Africa to the UK. My most recent project for the Downs Syndrome Association is capturing the lives and experiences of people in their 50s with downs syndrome. I continue to believe ordinary people live the most extraordinary lives and oral history provides the opportunity for their voices to be heard and preserved for future generations.