The idea for the CAC originated during a 2018 symposium called Architecting Sustainable Futures. Hosted by Shift Collective and supported by The Mellon Foundation, this symposium brought together community-based archives representing LGBTQ+ people, indigenous people, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinx people, and victims of police violence and incarceration. During this two-day symposium, attendees explored shared challenges and approaches to financial sustainability. A key finding of the symposium report was that community-based archives practitioners would benefit from a peer network offering resources that could support activities related to knowledge and practice sharing, capacity building, and sustainability among community-based archives.
The health of community-based archives is essential for a thriving archival community. These organizations hold some of the most valuable materials documenting the lives of marginalized people, and mostly reside in spaces outside of traditional academic and government-run cultural heritage institutions. By disrupting the hierarchical models in place in traditional archives, these repositories prompt community members to view collections as belonging to the community and challenge dominant practices and conceptions of custody, description, and ownership. In community archives, archival work is done by and with the community, and not just for the community. Despite their importance to collecting, preserving, and sharing stories of marginalized people, many community archives face difficulties growing their operations, keeping their doors open, and enhancing their programming and collections activities.
Often formed in response to being shut out of dominant historical narratives, the stark reality is that materials preserved and made accessible by community-based archives mostly fall outside the scope and collecting interests of traditional archival repositories and would likely be erased from public consciousness if not for their work.
With the knowledge that community-based archives are incredibly important and yet still struggle with sustainability, four partners, led by SAADA, participated in the first phase of the CAC which received funding from an NHPRC Archives Collaboratives planning grant in 2019. This allowed the four partner organizations to conduct bi-monthly conference calls, participate in a three-day workshop, compile a community-based archives directory, conduct a qualitative survey of these institutions, and establish a plan for increasing the scope and reach of the CAC. In 2020, we were awarded additional funding from an NHPRC Archives Collaboratives implementation grant. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of these grant activities were delayed until January 2022.