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