The powerful digital  stories included in the 40 Voices, 40 Years project have transformed policy and service provision for victims of domestic violence in Wales, as well as informed training for police officers.

Dr Underwood-Lee said: "I’m proud of playing a role in a project that enables women’s stories to be heard on a national stage and at the highest level in Government.

"This project allows us to amplify these stories and get them heard in places where they can be used to educate and inform and to make real change to the lives of women and children in Wales and beyond."

Dyddiadau
2018 – 2019

Arianwyr
Cronfa Dreftadaeth y Loteri

Tîm Ymchwil
Ymchwilydd Arweiniol: Dr Emily Underwood-Lee , Cyswllt Prosiect:: Catrin James.

Partneriaid Allanol
Welsh Women’s Aid

Bydd y prosiect yn casglu gwybodaeth, atgofion, llwyddiannau a deunyddiau ar draws y 40 mlynedd o symudiad Cymorth i Ferched Cymru, o’i ddechreuad fel casgliad o fudiadau merched ar lawr gwlad a grëwyd allan o’r Symudiad Rhyddfrydol i Ferched yn y 1970au cynnar, hyd heddiw.

Mae’r dreftadaeth y bydd y prosiect hwn yn canolbwyntio arno yn cynnwys:

1) Nodi’r merched hollbwysig wrth ddatblygu agenda cymdeithasol a gwleidyddol ffeministaidd yng Nghymru, a roddodd ddiogelwch, cefnogaeth a llais i ferched yng Nghymru, gan ddatgelu y tu ôl i ddrysau ‘caeedig’ broblem gymdeithasol cam-drin domestig, ac ar yr un pryd ei fframio fel achos sylfaenol a chanlyniad anghydraddoldeb merched.

2) Adolygu’r momentau hanesyddol allweddol sy’n ymwneud â Chymorth i Ferched Cymru a’r mudiad ehangach. Rydyn ni’n cydnabod bod amrywiaeth hunaniaeth a phrofiadau bywyd merched (merched o wahanol ethnigrwydd, rhywioldeb, dosbarth cymdeithasol, oedrannau a galluoedd) yn aml wedi’u hymyleiddio neu eu hepgor o’r hanes ehangach o hanes ffeministaidd a bod y profiadau rhyngweithiol hyn yn flaenoriaeth.

3) Casglu atgofion gweithredwyr, goroeswyr a gweithwyr lloches, sy’n ymwneud â'r mudiad a’u myfyrdodau ar lwyddiannau yn y gorffennol a heriau yn y dyfodol a rhannu’r rhain fel storïau digidol hygyrch trwy daith o amgylch mannau cymunedol Cymreig, yn ffurfiol (e.e. amgueddfeydd, sefydliadau addysgol ), ac anffurfiol (llyfrgelloedd, canolfannau cymunedol a mannau rhithwir ar-lein.

4) Ar gyfer archif hanes llafar, dal merched fel sbardunau newid mewn gwahanol bwyntiau yn hanes 40 mlynedd Cymorth i Ferched Cymru o’r flwyddyn sefydlu yn 1978 hyd heddiw.

5) Coladu ar gyfer archif a digwyddiad ac arddangosfa derfynol, y dogfennau a’r arteffactau ffisegol (adroddiadau, papurau polisi a deddfwriaethol, cylchlythyrau, taflenni, erthyglau papur newydd, llyfrau, baneri, bathodynnau, crysau-t, gwybodaeth ymgyrchu, deunyddiau codi arian, ffotograffau, a gwrthrychau eraill) sy’n dangos taith y mudiad a’r gweithredwyr a’r sefydliadau sy’n cymryd rhan dros y 40 mlynedd diwethaf.

Allbynnau ac Effeithiau

Darllenwch ein hadroddiad terfynol ar y prosiect 

• Cofnodwyd straeon 26 o ferched a oedd yn allweddol ym mudiad Cymorth i Ferched a rhyddid y merched yng Nghymru 
• Crëwyd 46 hanes llafar a stori ddigidol gan weithredwyr, goroeswyr a staff sydd wedi ymwneud â’r mudiad yng Nghymru dros y 40 mlynedd diwethaf 
• Cyfrannodd 18 o oroeswyr 22 stori o weithdai adrodd straeon digidol 
• Rhannwyd 46 stori ddigidol hygyrch ledled Cymru ac ar-lein trwy Gasgliad y Werin Cymru, YouTube a Facebook. 
• Crëwyd archif gynhwysfawr yng Nghasgliad y Werin Cymru a Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, a pharheir i ychwanegu atynt er mwyn tyfu'r casgliad ymhellach. Crëwyd a rhannwyd llinell amser o eiliadau hanesyddol allweddol yn ymwneud â mudiad Cymorth i Ferched Cymru.
• Cefnogodd 68 o wirfoddolwyr y prosiect, darparodd dros 100 diwrnod o wirfoddoli cyfleoedd i  5,648 o bobl yng Nghymru fynychu’r arddangosfa deithiol a gwelodd dros 14,500 o ymwelwyr amgueddfa yr arddangosfa derfynol 
• Mynychodd mwy na 20,000 o unigolion, disgyblion a myfyrwyr, grwpiau cymunedol, ac eraill arddangosfeydd a darlithoedd yn eu cymunedau lleol a'u gofodau addysgol gan glywed straeon pwerus goroeswyr, gan ddysgu am y rhesymau dros y mudiad, yr heriau a'r cyflawniadau a wynebwyd ar wahanol adegau dros y 40 blynedd diwethaf, a deall yn well pam mae angen y sector o hyd. 
• Cyrchodd tua 10,000 o unigolion wybodaeth am y prosiect trwy adnoddau ar-lein a chyfryngau cymdeithasol 

Edrychwch ar ein canllaw hyfforddi y gellir ei lawrlwytho am ddim i'ch helpu chi a'ch sefydliad i ddysgu a gwella gwasanaethau trwy wrando ar storïau Deugain Llais, Deugain Mlynedd.

Am fwy o wybodaeth cysylltwch â: Emily Underwood-Lee.

Dates
2018 – 2019

Funders
Heritage Lottery Fund

Research team
Lead Investigator: Dr Emily Underwood-Lee , Project Associate: Catrin James.

External Partners
Welsh Women’s Aid

The project will gather information, memories, successes, and materials across the 40 years of the Welsh Women’s Aid movement, from its beginnings as a collection of grassroots women’s organisations created out of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the early 1970s, to the present day.

The heritage this project will focus on includes:

1) Identifying the women instrumental in the development of a feminist social and political agenda in Wales, who gave women in Wales safety, support and a voice, exposing from behind closed doors the 'hidden’ social problem of domestic abuse, and simultaneously framing it as a fundamental cause and consequence of women’s inequality.

2) Reviewing the key historical moments relating to Welsh Women’s Aid and the wider movement. We acknowledge that the diversity of women’s identities and life experiences (women of different ethnicities, sexualities, social class, ages, and abilities) and are often marginalised or omitted from the wider reporting of feminist history and capturing these intersectional experiences is a priority.

3) Gathering the memories of activists, survivors, and refuge workers, involved in the movement and their reflections on past successes and future challenges and sharing these as accessible digital stories via a tour of Welsh community spaces, both formal (e.g. museums, educational establishments), and informal (libraries, community centres and virtual online spaces.

4) Capturing for archive the oral histories of women as catalysts of change at various points in the 40 year history of Welsh Women’s Aid from the founding year in 1978 to present day.

5) Collating for archive and a final event and exhibition, the physical documents and artefacts (reports, key policy and legislative papers, newsletters, leaflets, newspaper articles, books, banners, badges, t-shirts, campaign information, fundraising materials, photographs, and other objects) which demonstrate the journey of the movement and the activists and organisations involved over the past 40 years.

Outputs and Impacts: 

Read our final report on the project

• 26 women instrumental in the women’s liberation and Women’s Aid movement in Wales had their stories recorded  
• 46 oral histories and digital stories from activists, survivors and staff involved in the Wales movement over the past 40 years were created 
• 18 survivors contributed 22 stories from digital storytelling workshops 
• 46 accessible digital stories shared across Wales and online through The People’s Collection Wales, YouTube and Facebook. 
• Comprehensive archive created at The People’s Collection of Wales and the National Library of Wales, which will continue to be added to in the future to further grow the collection, and a timeline created of key historical moments relating to the Welsh Women’s Aid’s movement captured and shared.  
• 68 volunteers supported the project, and over 100 days volunteering provided  
• 5,648 people in Wales attended the touring exhibition and over 14,500 museum visitors saw the final exhibition  
• More than 20,000 individuals, pupils and students, community groups, and others attended exhibitions and lectures in their local communities and educational spaces hearing powerful survivor stories, learning about the reasons for the movement, the challenges and achievements faced at various times over the past 40 years, and better understand why the sector is still needed.  
• Approximately 10,000 individuals accessed project information via online resources and social media 

View our free, downloadable training guide to help you and your organisation learn and improve services through listening to the Forty Voices, Forty Years stories. 

For more information contact: Emily Underwood-Lee.