Survivors and activist groups will work alongside researchers to bring six decades of often invisible campaigning for justice and change into sharp focus.
The major new research project will work to co-create a blueprint for establishing “living archives”, which ensure the history of survivor-led campaigning on child sexual abuse (CSA) in England between 1960 to 2024 is told by the people who lived it.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the project is led by researchers from the University of York and King’s College London in partnership with the writer and survivor-activist Patricia Debney and Survivors Voices, a survivor-led research charity.
To ensure the project remains rooted in the testimonies, experiences and reflections of survivors, a dedicated group of nine survivor-activists will guide the work. The team is also working closely with the Church of England, the Association of Child Protection Professionals (AoCPP), and the Chester Sexual Abuse Support Service (CSASS).
Survivor-activists have long been at the forefront of demanding social and political change. However, their activism was and remains poorly recognised and funded. Unlike official institutions, grassroots campaigns rarely leave behind organised archives. Instead, crucial records, such as meeting notes, letters, creative projects, and digital files, are often scattered, held in private hands, stored in sheds, or saved on old USB sticks.
As activists age or pass away, and as advocacy organisations face closure, these irreplaceable histories are at risk of being lost forever. Without these records, the critical role survivors played in changing society is obscured.
Project lead, Dr Victoria Hoyle from the Department of History and the University of York said:
“The history of child sexual abuse is often told about survivors, not by them. Despite decades of campaigning, the voices of survivor-activists remain largely missing from the historical record.
"Our hope is that this project helps to move public perceptions beyond viewing survivors solely through their vulnerability, to recognising their expertise and agency. By answering these hard ethical questions we aim to create a safe, empowering way to preserve this history and lay the essential groundwork for a future national archive of survivor activism.
“This isn't just about the past. By learning from the work of survivor activists we can uncover vital new insights to strengthen strategies for preventing child sexual abuse today.”
The project will explore the complex ethical and practical questions that have made it difficult to preserve these important histories in the past. The goal is to build archives that truly put survivors in control of their own stories and the research team aim to find the missing pieces of our history – the stories of people who have been ignored or silenced – and bring them to the fore.
Patricia Debney, writer and survivor-activist, said:
"Survivor activists and survivor activist groups have fought for decades to be heard. Remembering Together promises to bring these voices together, in time establishing common protocols for recording and archiving survivor activist testimonies, activities – and losses and gains. Outdated social and cultural conventions have meant that despite our best efforts, much of the invaluable work achieved by survivor activists and their organisations has been invisible, and completely isolated from the mainstream. Through Remembering Together, we aim to help each other build upon lasting foundations: to be visible, to make connections, and ultimately, to articulate and implement paths to change."
"As a grass-roots, survivor-led organisation, Survivors Voices builds on the work of those amazing early activists’, said founding director Jane Chevous. ‘We’re proud to play our part in ensuring that the legacy and history of survivor activism is not lost, by bringing together an expert group of current survivor activists to co-create this work and ensure survivors’ transformational work is recognised and celebrated."
The project aims to:
- Create the "living archive" blueprint: A practical digital toolkit and guide for how survivors, groups, and archivists can safely create and preserve archives related to CSA.
- Map the history of activism: The team will undertake the first-ever national "discovery exercise" to find out where records of survivor activism are held. This will be published as an open-access database.
- Pilot new approaches: The blueprint will be tested and refined through two pilot studies, working hands-on with existing archives from survivor-activists.
- Record survivor voices: A new "seed-bank" of ten oral history interviews will be created, capturing the life stories of key survivor-activists.
Project Co-lead, Professor Alana Harris from the Department of History at King’s College London said:
"Our project seeks to give visibility and voice to survivor-activists who are advocates, agitators, and change makers campaigning to safeguard children and activate restorative justice processes. In co-creating a tranche of life histories - through memory collection, storytelling, and creative assemblages - we will amplify forgotten or obscured survivor activism across decades as a form of historical recovery that might also resource future strategies."
The project aims to have a positive impact on current abuse prevention initiatives and justice campaigns by advancing our understanding of the successes and struggles of historic survivor-led campaigns. It will provide clear evidence to policy makers of the long history of survivor activism, offering insights that can inform current processes, such as the delivery of the recommendations made in the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Report and the Church of England National Redress Scheme (NRS)