Go Create final report

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

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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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