This application to work with All Our Stories (AOS) projects builds on the University of Hertfordshire's commitment to academic-community partnerships in history and heritage. Over the last three years, the University's Heritage Hub (HH) has supported research and development work essentially connected to and shaped by the communities the University serves http://heritagehub.herts.ac.uk/. Phase 1 Connected Communities funding allowed us to expand and accelerate our activities, taking University researchers to museums and community events, and bringing members of local history groups, schools and individual researchers into the University. We are now in a position to consolidate this experience. Through a partnership with AOS groups in Smallford, Sopwell and Wheathampstead, we will explore new ways of doing collaborative research and embedding skills and knowledge across regional and academic communities. The first strand of activity, a programme of bespoke training and mentoring, has been determined in consultation with the AOS groups. Two early career researchers (ECRs), experts in oral history and archival prospecting, will lead this aspect of the project. With support from the PI, the team will enhance the initial training in oral history for which the AOS groups have already budgeted. In particular they will mentor groups throughout the research process, developing skills (the art of questioning, an ear for the telling story etc) and building confidence. Through partnership with Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) a similar and responsive programme of activities will be provided around archival resources. The project re-affirms our commitment to break down divisions between researchers inside and outside the University. We believe that the University can play a vital role in connecting projects and research across the region and beyond. Our ambition here is to go beyond a 'local for locals' framework and encourage participants to feel part of an (inter)national endeavour. For that reason we include two further strands of activity, both of which are designed to enrich the AOS groups' research contexts and will also be relevant to AOS projects across the region and beyond it. Digital story-telling (via DigiTales) and digital mapping (via Historypin) can make research into a multi-way, international conversation. Community and University researchers will participate in a genuine process of knowledge exchange, as close to equals as the structures allow, creating new forms of spatial and relational knowledge with public and academic value. AOS funding has empowered many community heritage groups. The University's HH will provide this project with a channel to share that experience with those who did not apply for AOS funding or whose bids were unsuccessful. Through shadowing and, where appropriate, sharing activities with successful projects, other organisations will gain practical skills and confidence to participate actively in exploring the region's heritage, perhaps developing their own funding applications. Digital storytelling and Historypin are two specific vehicles for exchanging knowledge and building ambitions. Through creating material they will enrich research collaborations and expand the opportunities for participants, including AOS groups, to locate discrete projects in variegated regional and global contexts. Our intention here is to give substance to a notion of communities connected in a shared historical landscape. This stream of the project will also address issues of fragmentation and sustainability beyond the formal life of AOS activities. The project will create additional AOS outputs, specifically in the form of digital mapping and storytelling, and build capacity, resilience and sustainability. The process will give the ECRs in particular a close insight into working with community groups, while also creating substantial knowledge about local and global histories.