The Quaggy Parents Forum
Go Create!
December 2013 Contents
National Lottery Funded project Jan 2013 – Dec 2013
About us Background and why w e did this project What we did during the project Reflecting about the project
Case Study
The final event
Useful contacts
QDT manager feedback “This was an invaluable experience for the Quaggy Parents Forum. They have learnt a lot and can take many ideas forward”
Who are we? The Quaggy Parents Forum was
The Quaggy Development Trust
established in 2005 and is a voluntary
develops and manages a broad range
group of active parents from Lewisham
of activities for children, parents and
and Greenwich in South East London.
carers, young parents and the local and
Their children attend the Quaggy
wider community. The Parents Forum
Children’s Nursery, an early years setting takes an active role within the trust, in Greenwich m anaged b y the Quaggy
creating their own ideas and projects.
Development Trust.
The Parents Forum has a steering group and meets b i weekly.
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About GO CREATE! Creative Skills Business Skills Process Lead Informal Learning Community Focused Entrepreneurship Social Cohesion
Government statistics demonstrated that our local area is socially and economically deprived, how could we challenge this? Our solution was to enable local adults to products might possibly create a shift in was our first step. We had spoken to develop the skills for socially focused
awareness and open up the ideas and
local parents and realised that there
entrepreneurship. Many of our local
possibilities of working in a micro social was a definite need for more creative
families live in flats and have very little
enterprise, or even to begin thinking of
activities that had an additional
access to skills development training,
setting up a small business and self
business focus. We decided to apply for
micro enterprises, or the arts and culture. employment. The Quaggy wants to
funding for our project and we w ere
Given the current socio economic
given a grant from The National Lottery
develop a creative hub, a place w here
situation we felt that to equip people with parents and carers can come along,
Awards for All Scheme. Once w e had
the skills for business as well as the
learn new skills in an o pen and
funding in place w e began to foster
ability to design and make their own
welcoming environment, GO CREATE
relationships with local creatives.
Organisations and creative professionals we worked with during Go Create!
Deb Astell / Artist and Project Manager
Trevor Horsewood / Business advisor
Capture Arts
Ekkehard Altenburger / Artist designer
Cockpit Arts
Anja Lubach / Ceramicist
Art in Perpetuity Trust
Sian Zeng / Graphic Designer
The Deptford Lounge
Laura Mcnair / Artist designer
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What did we do? We ran a programme of workshops focusing on.. Introduction to a micro enterprise / skills
Designing packaging and brand development
Lean start up models / small scale
Designing a badge (simple but complicated!)
Budgeting and keeping records
Laser cutting for key rings, cards, and decorations
Purchasing, stock taking, sales ledgers
Graphic design and creative ideas generation
Price points, benchmarking, copyright law
How to make a ceramics line
Branding and telling the story
Designing a bag / t-‐shirt
Publicity and marketing
Screen-‐printing
Getting a product to market
Making festive cards
Quality control
Embossing and stamping
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FEED PARTICIPANTS BACK
What did we feel about the project,
What were the challenges and issues,
what did we enjoy?
how did we overcome them?
During our evaluation session the
As this project w as partly to try and test
overall feeling was that w e had enjoyed
out a new idea it brought up some areas
the project. It w as a great o pportunity to
we needed to reflect upon and change
try out new creative experiences
for the future. The primary challenge
together. Particular favourite activities
was around time and work constraints.
included screen-‐printing, making bags,
We had a lot to do and it felt pressurised
“It w as nice to watch people working together”
creating a range of ceramics and
during some of the workshops trying to
designing and making Christmas cards.
reach our targets. It became apparent
A key benefit was w orking together as a
that we needed more effective
group and making friends. During the
communication methods between the
Quaggy Carnival the group members
group and key group members and
enjoyed engaging with children during a
project managers.
badge making workshop and it felt great to engage the public with the project.
How can we do things differently?
“ I enjoyed myself and it was a great opportunity to top up my skills”
“The end products were nice to see” Getting our products to market We looked at recent data from Arts Council England about the demographics in our local and wider communities; our products, price
The Quaggy project manager fed back
Set up a more effective communication
points and designs were developed
that it was a great opportunity for the
system with an on line diary so
with key audiences in mind.
group to make things they never
everyone is aware of what is happening
thought they could.
and when. Allocate jobs and
We had 4 key opportunities to talk to
responsibilities outside of the actual
the public about our project and
Also learning about sales and marketing, price points, audience development, creating a brand and being able to tell our story in a creative
workshops more w idely between group encourage people to buy our products members. On reflection we could have
The Quaggy Summer Carnival
produced less actual products and gave our selves more time!
Parents Forum and Q uaggy Events
throughout the project. It was very
In the future when we undertake Go
Corelli College Winter Fair
useful to learn about the business side
Create projects and making products we
of setting up a micro enterprise as this
cam minimise the risks by making less
made us think very differently about
and giving ourselves more time to
what we were doing and whom we were
produce and d evelop new ideas.
way became key learning developments
doing it for! Having reflected o n what happened Having the sessions based at The Holy
during the project we feel that w e can
Trinity Centre w as also beneficial; this
take what we have learned forward and
gave us a great space to w ork from that
adapt the principles and learning to
could accommodate large-‐scale
keep the aims and objectives going and
workshops with lots o f people.
innovate and develop new possibilities.
Our final event at The Deptford Lounge We also produced a range of publicity materials to distribute locally informing people of the project and encouraging new members to join. The project has been very well received and the key stakeholders have been very impressed with the outcomes.
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Product Case study The badge
At the very beginning of the project we
this initial product and it became apparent
were set a group challenge to design,
that making and selling our own products,
make, market and sell a very simple
running a micro enterprise and marketing,
product, a badge.
branding, and telling o ur story w as quite a
This task was not so easy as it first appeared! We needed to think about some key factors before we began.
complex task. It was very good to begin the project with a small and simple object as it low risk and allowed us to reflect o n what we had done.
1.
Who is it for?
2.
How do we make it, what designs do
would arise when we made more costly and
we use?
complex products and it was better to start
We understood that the same challenges
small and scale up! 3.
How can w e use it to promote our project?
The badges became a vehicle to raise awareness about our project. We sold some
4.
Do we sell it or use it as a marketing
and the rest we used as a promotional object.
and publicity tool? 5.
What is the production price per unit?
6.
What is the profit margin?
The badges included an information card about the project with links to the Parents Forum and w ere packaged in a very thoughtful way to maximise impact.
7.
What other similar products exist and how much are they?
The lessons we learned whilst u ndertaking the badge challenge helped us w hen w e came
8.
How much do we sell it for?
We began by brainstorming ideas and using a large mind map to consider all the factors involved with making and selling the badge, w e all undertook research and development before w e came together in the following workshop to begin our
to d esign and make more costly and complex products like the ceramics range. W e knew what the challenges w ould be and we had to think carefully about whom w e were making the ceramics for, how much to sell them for, production costs etc. just the same as the badge.
design ideas. We considered a range of
We bought our own badge machine from
audiences from mums in the
some of the profits we made during the
breastfeeding group to council members
project; this w ill enable u s to carry using this
at both Lewisham and Greenwich and key
equipment d uring w orkshops and events and
stakeholders of the project.
for making our own badges in the future.
We spent quite a lot time and thought on
A badge success story!
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The final event
The Deptford Lounge
Our final event allowed us to showcase all our products to a
Saturday 7th December
wider audience. It gave us an opportunity to tell o ur story and
11am – 3pm
share all we had learned. Around 100 people attended the event, which included the offered a free card making activity to the general public, testing out some of our new skills for the first time! Both adults and children attended the workshop and the feedback was great; everyone said they had enjoyed it. This was a very valuable activity for us to undertake as we could share our project and some of the skills we have learned directly with the public during a hands on activity. This w as the first time our group had d elivered a w orkshop in a public setting, although nervous at first w e soon got into the swing of things and enjoyed ourselves. Everything went very well and the feedback was encouraging and positive. We made sure we had a comments book so that people who are interested future projects can join our mailing list. All our publicity materials were handed out and included
The public attending our free card-‐making workshop!
with every purchase, this was the first time some of the group had participated in a ‘market’ / exhibition and speaking with the general public, there had been some concerns about language and levels of English. However, these soon vanished as the Arabic Saturday school came to visit and our Arabic-‐ speaking members of the team could explain everything! We sold £190 worth of our products and it was a fantastic and positive end of project event.
Report by Deb Astell Quaggy Parents Forum Go Create Report
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Contact us eycdw@quaggychildrenscentre.org.uk 020 8465 9785
Quaggy Development Trust Quaggy Children's Centre Orchard Hill London SE13 7QZ www.quaggydevelopmenttrust.org
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
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