Our Edinburgh Make it Your Own team are having an Open Day at our new office in St Margaret’s House on Friday 14th February.
Come along between 2pm-4pm and find out about our Make
It Your Own, creative tenancy sustainment project for Care
Experienced young people aged 16-25 in Edinburgh. Our artists offer one-to-one and group creative sessions, where participants take part in workshops on interior design, decorating and making items for their home. The aim is that those in new tenancies will gain new practical skills and make their new home somewhere that reflects their personality and feels truly theirs.
You’ll get the chance to explore the Impact Arts office, take part in fun creative
activities, speak to the Make It Your Own and Impact Arts teams and find out
more about the incredible, free opportunities available for young people
throughout Edinburgh. You will also get the chance to make something for your
home with our interior design team!
A great opportunity for you, your colleagues and/or young people
to find out more about Impact Arts programmes and get involved in workshops.
Refreshments will be provided.
Date -14th February
Time – 2pm-4pm
Location –
St Margaret’s House
B103-104, 151 London Road
Edinburgh, EH7 6AE
If you are interested in coming along, please contact gillian.pettigrew@impactarts.co.uk
We are sharing stories from our CEYP Make It Your Own
projects this week as part of Care Experienced Week. MIYO CEYP is tenancy
sustainment project for care experienced young people that Impact Arts runs in
Glasgow, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Renfrewshire.
Sabrina has been attending our make it your own programme
and has really enjoyed upcycling furniture and making different pieces to help
make her house feel more homely.
The first thing Sabrina decided to make was a canvas
inspired by her favourite band, 5 Seconds of Summer. She painted her canvas
black then projected symbols on to it and drew them in, in pencil. Using a gold
posca paint pen she then coloured in the symbols.
Sabrina has chosen a black, pink and gold theme for her room
and is now upcycling furniture in these colours. She chose different furniture
pieces to help her maximise storage. She has covered an ottoman with pink
velvet and black woven wool which is going to be used as storage for her books and
a seat to sit and read on.
Sabrina said; “When I moved into my first home, all of the
furniture was bought for me, it didn’t feel like my own taste. This project is
helping me make my house more of a home. I’m putting stuff that I want in.
Making my bedroom somewhere that I want to spend time. That is important for my
mental health.
“I love my canvas I’m so proud of myself for making that
canvas. I’ve got to use machinery I’ve not been able to use before. I’ve got a
lot more done than I thought I would since being here, I’ve started to paint my
room at home which has been needing done for years!
I would recommend this program to other care experienced
young people.”
MIYO Creative Assistant, Hannah said; “Sabrina has lots of
great creative ideas and is really ambitious. She is great company always
chatty and usually singing. She is really keen to learn new skills with the technical
equipment.”
If you or someone you know is interested in joining one of
our CEYP
MIYO projects in Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Edinburgh or Ayrshire then get in
touch today to find out more.
Make It Your Own is a project run by Impact Arts helping Care
Experienced Young People to make soft furnishings and consider the interior
design of their own homes.
Moving towards independent living is a key life transition
for individuals of any age and background, but for care-experienced young
people this transition can be particularly challenging and unsettling. Care
experienced young people are more likely to struggle as they transition into
adulthood, are at greater risk of homelessness, and have difficultly accessing
the right housing options, sustaining a tenancy and ultimately making a home
for themselves.
Through the project we aim to encourage creativity and DIY
projects and help the young people realise their vision for their homes.
One young person who is part of the project in Renfrewshire
is Candice. In her first session Candice began making a canvas to hang in her living
room. One of her favourite Musicians is Prince. She looked up a photo collage
online, and used the projector to project an image of Prince onto a round
canvas. She then drew round this and painted it black.
Candice said; “Making the canvas has inspired me. It’s given
me something to focus on. Coming here gets me out the house, and I feel myself
again.”
“Sitting doing the
drawing really calms me. My support worker has said that since coming to the
project she recognises the old, happy me, rather than the me who was unwell.”
Candice has also upcycled her bedside cabinets from plain
white to a brilliant white with a spray painted paisley pattern and silver
handles. She hand cut a stencil using a craft knife and cutting mat then laid
the stencil over it and sprayed through it with spray paint.
MIYO Creative Assistant, Hannah said; “Candice has grown in confidence
since coming here as she realises what is possible to make and what she is
capable of. She is really excited about getting the furniture pieces home. It’s
been so nice getting to know Candice, she works on her projects with a lot of
focus and care. She has great original ideas.”
Participants on our MIYO project learn skills like sewing,
woodworking, upcycling, canvas art, painting, decorating and more. The
programme also includes a shopping budget plus inspiration trips.
If you or someone you know is interested in joining one of our
MIYO projects in Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Edinburgh or Ayrshire then get in touch
today to find out more.
We are delighted to have secured Young Start funding from the National Lottery Community Fund for our creative tenancy sustainment project Make it Your Own!
Young Start has pledged £90,149 over three years to work with care-experienced young people in Edinburgh, Glasgow, North Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.
Our artists will be offering one-to-one and group creative sessions with young people aged 14-25 who have experience of fostering, kinship care or residential care.
Participants will take part in workshops on interior design, decorating and making items for those home.
The aim is that those in new tenancies will gain new practical skills and make their new home somewhere that reflects their personality and feels truly theirs.
For more about recently-announced Young Start funding, please visit their website.
Impact Arts is delighted to announce that their Fab Pad Renfrewshire project was highly commended in partnership with Renfrewshire Council’s Throughcare service. The organisations won the ‘Innovative Partnership’ Award at a ceremony on 12.06.13.
Impact Arts were running a live two-day up-cycle as part of the CELSIS Resource Centre Exhibition and Awards Ceremony that took place at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on 12th and 13th of June. The conference provided a venue to discuss and debate important local, national and international perspectives on some of the most creative and exciting aspects of contemporary residential child care practice. Impact Arts were showcasing their partnership work with Renfrewshire Council’s Throughcare Service. Through this partnership Impact Arts provide their Fab Pad project to young care leavers who are about to gain their first tenancy.
Fab Pad was set up in 1998 by Impact Arts as an innovative youth housing project. It is a proven method of reducing youth homelessness and youth unemployment. Working with young people who have gained a new tenancy or are at risk of homelessness, interior designers teach essential skills such as sewing, decorating, basic DIY and interior design. This enables young people to transform their house into a home, and helps them develop a sense of ownership and pride which reduces anti-social behaviour and tenancy breakdown. Participants join a local workshop where they work one-to-one with our fully qualified tutors and gain a support network of peers. Alongside a host of technical skills, young tenants also learn transferable skills which enable them to progress in other areas of their lives. SROI documentation suggests that for every £1 invested in Fab Pad there is a social return of £8.38.
Lynne Carr, CEO Impact Arts said:
“We were really pleased with how the ‘Drab to Fab’ live upcycle went, and are delighted to have been highly commended in the Innovative Partnership category with Renfrewshire Throughcare. I would like to give a big thanks to all of our talented staff who were involved in the project, Lynne, Alison and Kirsty. Well done for your hard work ladies! Hopefully the live up-cycle gave people a chance to learn more about the Fab Pad project and to see first-hand how effective it is in engaging young care leavers and enabling them to turn their house into a home.”
