Education and Public Engagement
Our objective is to make sure that our sites – from individual scattered graves to cemeteries and memorials - are visited and explored as a permanent part of local and national heritage within the UK.
Today, over a century after we first began, our work continues through our staff, supporters and volunteers who preserve our unique cultural, horticultural and architectural heritage and ensure that the stories of those who died in the First World War and Second World War are told.
We aim to actively engage new audiences and find innovative ways to involve the whole community with our work – through education and outreach, voluntary activity, arts and heritage projects, local research and partnership working. We aim to increase local awareness of CWGC sites across the UK.
BOOK A TALK OR TOUR
The Speaker and Tour Programmes aim to connect with schools, colleges, universities as well as many other social and community groups to explain our work and share the stories of the men and women that we commemorate.
The CWGC’s existing Public Engagement Co-ordinators work with a network of volunteer speakers to offer a series of free talks and tours on the CWGC covering topics as diverse as our history to the horticulture of our sites.
Follow the link to find more information on our programmes including how to enquire about a talk or tour as well as how you can apply to become one of our volunteer speakers.
LEARNING RESOURCES
The CWGC is dedicated to providing high-quality resources for all ages. We bring together tools, teaching aids, cemetery guides and interpretative material that supports the community in exploring their local CWGC heritage. Find education resources for use in the classroom, in a cemetery or on battlefield visits, as well as guidance and aids to family historians.
We publish a series of free information leaflets illustrating aspects of our work and major war cemeteries and memorials. You can view these leaflets online by opening the links below. The Commission also has several publications which can be purchased.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
We work with local people and volunteers, schools and education networks, universities and community organisations across the world, supporting our international colleagues with engagement and connecting communities in this shared, global heritage.
We actively seek to develop relationships and partnership projects that promote increased awareness of our work. We wish to increase visitor numbers to our sites and support communities in the exploration of their First World War and Second World War history at a local level and in an international context.
Across the UK, we are building a local, community engagement infrastructure with your help. We are connecting with local people and places and reconnecting neighbourhoods with the First World War and Second World War stories held within their local cemeteries. Volunteer champions, researchers and partner organisations are working with us to tell the stories of their local war graves and cemeteries.
