Online archives provide ‘family albums’ for children in care

Researchers at the University of Stirling have come up with a way to preserve the childhood memories of people in care – through accessible online archives.

person's hands looking at photos

Researchers at the University of Stirling have come up with a way to preserve the childhood memories of people in care – through accessible online archives. 

Experts in social work say the interactive online tool can work in the same way as family photo albums and scrapbooks, providing a way to preserve memories for children and young people in foster care or residential homes. 

The digital archive, produced as part of a three-year research project, Archiving Residential Children’s Homes (ARCH), contains photos and other memorabilia. They are accessible to young people and care staff, who can comment on and share their experiences in the same way as friends and family members do on a social media platform. 

Researchers at the University of Stirling and University of Osnabrück, who created ARCH, hope the tool can be replicated across the care sector. 

The ARCH project is the first of its kind, encouraging residential workers and foster carers to think about memory keeping rather than record keeping. 

Stirling researchers worked with a residential children’s home in Scotland, interviewing young people of mixed genders and ages, and staff, and developing digitalised group archives. They found that the shareable element of the archive was important in keeping memories alive and connecting or reconnecting with each other.

woman outside smiling
Professor Ruth Emond
Professor in Social Work
In families, stories can be passed on and memories shared and kept alive. It’s not as straightforward for children and young people in care and so for them, accessible and interactive digital archives can take the place of the traditional family album.

Professor Ruth Emond of the Faculty of Social Sciences, who has led the three-year ARCH project, said: “In families, stories can be passed on and memories shared and kept alive. It’s not as straightforward for children and young people in care and so for them, accessible and interactive digital archives can take the place of the traditional family album. We found it can also help them and staff keep up important connections.” 

Professor Emond added: “ARCH stresses the importance of capturing the everyday moments of childhood and raises important questions about who should be responsible for keeping hold of children and young people’s photographs and other memory objects. We hope our findings spark a national conversation and more initiatives related to memory keeping for children and young people in care.” 

The researchers shared their findings recently at a conference at the University of Stirling.

The ARCH research is supported by the Arts and Humanities Council and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsemeinschaft DFG). Further work will include creating living archives and exploring the complex ethical and moral challenges, as well as the regulatory fraframework, involved in recording a shared past in ‘state’ care. 

Find out more about ARCH by visiting archproject.stir.ac.uk