Day: 22 February 2023

The one thing the team want you to know

Get Crafty will offer low income families a chance to be creative together in a warm, safe and friendly environment. Being creative together encourages team work and strengthens the family bond.
This funding will ensure that we can continue to offer this experience at a much reduced cost through to the end of 2023.

Project description

When we opened 5 months ago our aim was to offer a safe, warm and friendly environment to all those in the local community who felt the need to utilise our offering. We have asked our customers what it is they feel they need. Most have told us that they enjoy our relaxed atmosphere, quality snacks and drinks at low prices and the wide selection of free crafts alongside low cost activities suitable for all age groups.
The cost of living crisis is reported to be affecting 94% of the adult population. Low income families spend significantly more on food and energy. This leaves very little to be enjoyed. Offering a low cost activity ensures that families can continue to spend quality time together. Research shows that a shared activity deepens the family bond and strengthens teamwork and communication skills.
We are situated on the border of Stonehouse and Stoke. As such there is a large population of people in our area living in poverty. The recent cost of living increases have only exasperated the problems.
We have trialled our popular Thursday taster workshop sessions on a Saturday after feedback that much of what we offered would be enjoyed as a family activity. As a result we now offer a drop in service with no pre booking required. We had feedback that the pressure to book a time and attend often acted as a deterrent. However, if people do wish to book to give themselves the accountability that they need, this is possible.
So far we have offered 5 Get Crafty events. These events have supported a total of 63 people across 25 groups, the average group size is therefore 2.5. Each session has grown in size and our upcoming session already has interest from 4 family groups, totalling 15 people.
Funding for this project will ensure that it can continue to grow and be enjoyed by our community. With funding we can enhance our workshop range by investing in a greater selection of craft supplies and materials. Offering a variety of crafts will ensure that these families can expand on their shared knowledge. In addition to strengthening the family bonds we have found that people are getting to know each other and sharing mutual concerns and by talking to each other they feel supported and understood. This helps to reduce fears and in itself improves mental health.

Funding needed £3040

What group or groups of people will the project be working with and why?

The focus of this project is low income families who have been hardest hit by the current cost of living crisis. With more money being spent on food and energy there is very little money available for enjoying a family experience together. Spending time together, especially creating, is very beneficial to the family unit.

What areas will the project be working in?2-3 neighbourhoods

We are based on the border between Stoke and Stonehouse. This is the neighbourhood that the bulk of our project will benefit.

What is the group or organisations track record? Track record:
Been around for less than 6 months

How new is the idea? Experimentation:
Established for a few months

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Budget

Salaries & peoples time 40%

Project costs 10%

Event/hire/rent 40%

IT spend 0%

Core costs 10%

Capital 0%

Organisations involved

The one thing the team want you to know

Homelessness is a marginalising and lonely experience linked to occupational deprivation and mental and physical health inequality. People affected by homelessness are already impacted by poverty of resources, opportunities and relationships. So, the current cost-of-living crisis has disproportionately harsh impacts on them, stifling any ambition and creating even greater distance from a positive, purposeful future. It can be impossible to escape from a cycle of deprivation involving debt, ill health, and lack of resources to take up training or employment opportunities, or establish a home. This project seeks to break that cycle through personalised support to help people move forward.

Project description

The project targets people affected by homelessness, be it an imminent risk, or a current or past experience. This includes people who are currently street homeless, or in transition from rough sleeping into accommodation, from addiction to recovery, or from hospital admission and treatment to discharge. It will provide personalised support to tackle known economic and practical obstacles confronting people when trying to change their life circumstances.
The health challenges for this group are well documented and include frailty, heavy use of emergency services, and reduced life-expectancy (rough sleepers die on average 30 years earlier than the general population). In hospital, they can feel isolated and frightened, and are at high risk of self-discharge. Support for dignity in care, reduced occupational deprivation, and improved engagement can make all the difference between a successful hospital stay and damaging interruption to treatment.
We are a grassroots voluntary organisation in daily contact with our client group. Food brings them to us, but we always seek to understand their wider needs. Our strengths include being a bridge between clients and commissioned services, and the flexibility that being volunteer-led allows us to act nimbly to fill gaps in innovative ways.
We are able to launch project activities promptly, drawing on experience gained through many years of delivering the Soup Run service, plus user feedback, surveys, and participatory research. Our strong experienced partners (Plymouth Access to Housing (Path), Shekinah, and Health Inclusion Pathway, Plymouth (HIPP)) bring specialised skills in supporting people with complex needs. Among many collaborative activities, we successfully piloted the ‘New Beginnings’ scheme with Path helping people in a personalised way to address obstacles to their progress.
We have defined five Objectives to:
1: Prevent homelessness and reduce the risk of accommodated clients returning to rough sleeping, through advocacy, debt relief, and budgeting skills development.
2: Facilitate timely intervention to avert health crises and promote take-up of opportunities, through material and logistical support to attend appointments and treatment.
3: Support hospitalised clients by meeting basic needs through provision of clothing, and enabling connectedness and recreation with reading material, and i-pads/tablets.
4: Reduce isolation and promote personal development for people transitioning from homelessness, through supporting home-making and engagement with wellbeing/recovery programmes, plus new experiences to make their world bigger.
5: Foster interagency working and strengthen relationships between communities and organisations through creative approaches to supporting clients in common whose needs fall outside existing highly-pressured budgets.

Funding needed £7800

What group or groups of people will the project be working with and why?

We are targeting people in the poorest parts of Plymouth, who are currently homeless, affected by past homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. They suffer multiple disadvantage including severe poverty, and are disproportionately impacted by rises in the cost-of-living. We want to offer them personalised support to progress to healthier and more purposeful lives.

What areas will the project be working in?1 neighbourhood

PL1- predominantly Stonehouse, with clients coming to us from other poor areas of the city.

What is the group or organisations track record? Track record:
Been delivering for many years

How new is the idea? Experimentation:
Been delivering for years

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Budget

Salaries & peoples time 0%

Project costs 100%

Event/hire/rent 0%

IT spend 0%

Core costs 0%

Capital 0%

Organisations involved

Plymouth Soup Run, Plymouth Access to Housing (Path), Shekinah, and Health Inclusion Pathway, Plymouth (HIPP)