Re Opening Sept 2010

Don't forget we are back to normal hours this coming monday (6 September) 10:00am - 3:00pm. Hope to see you soon! Perhaps you can produce something like this fantastic elephant made by the girls at Greyladyes art foundation! (Photo courtesy of Bethan Foulkes)

Summer Opening Times

We will be open on the first four Wednesday evenings of the Summer holidays - 28th July and 4th, 11th and 18th August, 4pm to 8pm.
Normal hours will resume from Monday 6th September.

Scrapstore at EtNet Celebration event

A great afternoon was had on the 26th June at the Pavillion in the park in Eastleigh where Eastleigh Transition group were celebrating their first birthday as a group. Etnet, as they are known for short, were one of the groups who were supported by the Scrapstore's Community Builders Project.
Stuart made alternative England flags with the children, while also telling all the mums and dads about the store and what we do.

New Scrap.

John and Stuart did a big swap down at the Wiltshire Scrapstore yesterday - Expect new and exciting stock in the store next week!
Several other Scrapstores took part, so we have brought back a good selection of stuff.

Crazy Bug Hunt!

Green tokens at Waitrose!

If you can, please shop in Waitrose in Chandlers Ford this month (May 2010) and give your green token to the DICE club. The Dice club is an Activities club for Adults with learning difficulties supported by the Art House, Mencap and Southampton Scrapstore.
Mencap and Scrapstore started this project back in 2008 and it's still going strong, but needs funds to pay for the hall and for arts leaders. Thanks!

Students present exciting business proposal

The Scraptore Committee were delighted to have Ravi and Oscar from Southampton University present a business plan this week for Team Building Days.

Scrapstore's mission is to provide communities with access to low cost materials, particularly disadvantaged communities. So that this can continue to happen in the future, the students (including Jayme who unfortunately couldn't make the meeting) have been exploring ways to generate an alternative income for the store that will subsidise membership fees and keep costs down.

The result is a great new business opportunity for a practicing Artist to work on behalf of the store offering local businesses a Team Building Workshop 'with a difference'. Many businesses are looking to be more green these days and the students are confident that our scrap materials will have an uncanny ability to disarm even the most professional staff team.

The students are studying an MSc in Strategic Entrepreneurship and came to work with Scrapstore as part of a new pilot placement scheme for the School of Management.

However, the presentation and the report that the students put together was all on top of their coursework. Word has it that they put in a 13 hour day around the deadline for their coursework just so they could give us our very own report and spreadsheet tool. So we'd like to say a very big thank you to the students for their hard work and commitment as it's a vision for the store that we've been struggling to implement by ourselves. Now to make it happen!

Pilands Volunteer wins Digital Camera

Congratulations to Amanda Greenfield, volunteer at Pilands Wood Community Centre for being our winner!

Scrapstore's outreach project 'Communty Builders Project' asked volunteers from each of its community groups to fill out a questionairre to help with the final evaluation of the project.

The 'carrot' was the chance to win a £60 digital camera in a prize draw. We had over 100 entries and Amanda's name was picked from a hat.

Stuart presented the prize to Amanda at the Pilands' group's weekly Friday coffee meeting. Amanda was completely taken by surprise and was over the moon.

A big THANK YOU to all of our groups for helping us with our final evaluation. We've got loads of learning from all of your comments about how Southampton Scrapstore has been helping to make a difference in the community. Now we just need to write it all up!

Timsbury Hall Community Wildlife Garden project

Since the last entry the group have been gathering information needed to apply for a Awards for All grant.

They are working towards converting part of the ground behind the hall into an area that will have a garden area with wildlife area,  In their words -they want to create an area that is a haven for wildlife, a  meeting place and an area where the community can come together. 
As you can see they have big ambitions,  not only to achieve a fantastic physical space but also a space that can be enjoyed in many different ways.
The grant application form was sent of just before Christmas so fingers and toes crossed that they will be successful.

As with all projects such as this even though they have been working on this for a long time , if and when they raise enough funds there is still lots more to do.

They are well under way to achieving there goals. I have been able to assist them by looking at other ways to bring in further resources and offering them the space  to consider what has gone before them as well as thinking about what the future might hold.

The strength of the group stems from the fact  that they have a good cross section of people with different skills and experiences on board .

As my time with them was drawing to an end, I asked them if we could offer them additional assistance as I had a small amount of funds available to them.

They asked if we could buy them a Scrapstore membership for the next year as well as a garden hose and some children's gardening tools , we were happy to assist. along with the things they had asked us for also we treated them to a bird bath, some bird feeders and bird seed to encourage the children to think about ways to attract the wildlife.

Its been lovely working with this group Its a great community project and I wish them every success in their endeavours

Awbridge Wildgrounds Group getting ready for the spring

The weather being the way it has, it has been difficult for me to meet with the group, so as per usual much of our correspondence has been via email . As my time with them was now coming to an end I asked if there was anything else I could do to help them out after all being a pretty resourceful bunch they hadn't needed much  financial help from me and I still had a little left in the kitty to assist.

The main things they wanted was one  years Scrapstore membership  and some children's gardening gloves and tools to help them get going in the new year and of course we were happy to help with this request.   

So on Wednesday I finally got the chance to meet up with a couple of them as well as some friends to try out some of the equipment and to check out how the soil conditioning was going..

We should of brought our wellies

I still haven't found any treasure 

So this is it my time with the group has now come to end ...and it is great to know that they are already planning ahead and have arranged to meet up again this friday to plan for the coming months and they are already talking about seeds

Over the last year people have come and gone however the group is now made up from  a strong core group of seven  with plenty of people willing to lend a hand when needed and knowing how resourceful they are I am sure they will be planning some great activities in the future.
The well known saying - Mighty oaks from little acorns grow seems very appropriate.

Writing project at Hurstbourne Tarrant

The CB project have been working in a rural village on a family writing project. This was the 2nd session of what is proving to be a very popular and enjoyable project. Storyteller Claudia friend and CB outreach worker Stuart, have teamed up to help the school produce a book of creative writing about life in the village.

This week the group produced imaginative maps of their surroundings, pointed out their favourite places and landmarks.

Awbridge Wildgrounds group planning for the spring

Several members of the group along with myself and a new member Colin a local resident and a enthusiastic gardener all came together last Friday to decide on the next step for the community garden.

After some discussion about the direction and focus for the future taking into consideration the time that people are able to contribute to growing this project ( excuse the pun)
The plan of action was agreed to be the following :

• To concentrate on getting the new raised beds ready for the spring and to get a composter on the go
• To look at ways of involving the children for example  asking them to explore what ingredients need to go into making good compost, for each class to plan for what vegetables could go in their plot thinking about slow growing and fast growing fruit and veg, maybe link this to other themes e.g historical periods etc , also maybe to help by planting seeds etc.
• To look at ways of involving families for example holding sessions to learn more about growing vegetables and sharing skills and to consider what plants are needed in the wild grounds area to help attract creatures that will keep the slugs and nasty beasts at bay
• Maybe to start  a gardening club or arrange a number of activities

With all of these plans in mind we decided that we needed to focus on the things that need to happen before the Christmas break,  namely organising a composter which Colin  kindly offered to donate to the project and to set a date to prepare the soil in the raised beds ready for the spring.

The other things to consider was how we were we going to find the organic materials we needed to prepare the soil.

The provisional date for digging (subject to good weather) has been set for this Sunday morning, a tight schedule indeed,  however its amazing what a group of enthusiastic people can organise in a short time.

As to the  donations of well rotted manure, personal approaches combined with a leaflet out to the parents has brought in lots of offers of help which is great because they are going to need at least 25 bags of the stuff.

Mr Barnes the headteacher has also offered to write a article for the village newsletter asking people for donations of tools and useful implements.

Aviary Community Garden Planting Afternoon

The rain held off just long enough for the members of the Aviary Community garden group to start planting some winter vegetables!

Tony and Anne from the Allotment society joined us to offer valuable advice as well as bulbs to plant. As it was a cold afternoon, we brewed hot chocolate for everyone using a couple of storm kettles which don't require electricity or gas - they boil by burning

dry twigs and paper underneath!

Bird and butterfly feeder activities with families at Timsbury Pre School

This week I spent a morning with parents and children at Timsbury Pre School near Romsey.
The Pre School are part of a bigger project at the community hall to develop a community garden they were really keen to take part in a activity where they could learn how to make feeders to attract wildlife into the garden.
Everybody had lots of fun learning how to make two different types of butterfly feeders  ready for next spring as well as a  bird feeder to put out now ,  local birds are now benefiting in the area by getting a little more help when they most need .
The adults and children were really pleased to learn how to  make feeders from materials that they could easily collect and also do their bit when it came to recycling .

Bishops Sutton Family Art Workshops

October and November saw two more workshops run by Scrapstores, Stuart Jebbitt and local artist Melissa Simm.

Free taster sessions in making ‘art’ with scrap have been held at Bishops Sutton’s village hall for children and parents.

Where dragons roared in September ghoulish ghosts materialized in October, just in time for Halloween! November’s workshop saw many a strange creature and they all had blue fur!

Fun were had by all, kids and the adults! and to the delight to those who have already been to the last three, one more taster session will be going ahead on 6 December, a Christmas special, where an opportunity to make decorations to hang on your tree (or wherever else you may choose to hang them!)

The sessions are from 3 til 4.30 at Bishop’s Sutton village hall, so bring your imaginations and come on down!

A new project in Timsbury

Back in September I was contacted by parents from Timsbury Pre School  who had heard about the Awbridge project to ask me if I could assist them.
They are working on a collective  long term project with other groups who meet in their local village hall with the focus of  creating a multi use community garden, which needs to meet the various  needs of the hall users as well as be accessible to the local community.
 I agreed to meet with them to explore how I might be able to best help giving the time constraints of the CB project.
Thankfully there pans are well under way and they are now seeking permission from the local Parish Council to go ahead with the project. , so where could I help?
After meeting with two members of the group and after much discussion as to how the CB project could be of most help we agreed that funding and some training for some of  groups in the hall would be most beneficial.
So with this  in mind I am currently looking into what we can offer and will let you know how we progress.

Awbridge wildgrounds group autumn update

A quick update as to where we are now . Because the group meets in the school and involves local parents this has meant that we have not met over the summer holidays, however that does not mean that things haven't been happening behind the scenes.
Over the summer  holidays meetings took place between several members of the group and a local wildlife / gardening enthusiast who is really keen to help out and help to involve the local community , we have now arranged another meeting to take place in a couple of weeks with the intention of planning  for the future and to set out a plan of action to develop a vegetable garden alongside the wildlife area.
Meanwhile I have have been spending some time with a couple of enthusiastic members  assisting  them with looking at funding applications . We are also hoping to put on a training workshop to look at making feeding boxes etc to attract even more  wildlife into the garden .

This years community group training is a great success!

This year we decided to deliver another set of open access training, to pass on our learning to a larger number of groups. Members of 11 different community groups came along for 2 days of sharing tips, tricks and innovative ideas. We covered a lot of ground, with many
group exercises and activities, including the creation of a group skills audit, recognising and overcoming barriers to participation, and publicising your group to attract new members. The participants really enjoyed the interaction with other projects and we had a diverse range of groups, from a voluntary toddler group, an asian womens group, an inner city community garden, and a community art gallery. Many contact details were swapped for future collaborations!. "Brilliant! It was more than I expected and I have enjoyed the poster session the most", "nice to meet other folks and to think about things a bit differently", "top notch, learnt loads - we are the future" are just some of the feedback comments.
The CB project has also produced a "Community Group Survival Guide" full of advice and tips - which is available in PDF or word format for anyone who wants it. We are also working on an interactive CD-rom version! so watch this space.

BDS Art group - flyer designs.

Many thanks to Bishopstoke day services for their hospitality, and to their service users art group who spent an afternoon working with us on designs for the Curveball club flyers. Using recycled scraps on mounting card, they produced some really colourful and eyecatching designs.

Recording session for the Curveball Club

Some of the Dice group are now helping to put together a special music track to be played at the upcoming club night for adults with learning difficulties. Mark worked with the drum machine to programme some suitable rhythms, while Pam added some great vocals! We were also joined by Art House director, Bik, who kindly added some Didj for us. The dance track 'You can party' will be unveiled at the event on december the 9th!