RECOVER TEAM:
FABRIC OF LIFE PROJECT
MAY 2016 – APRIL 2017
REPORT TO THE JOHN LEWIS FOUNDATION
REPORT SUMMARY
In April 2016 Recover has received the £7,310 grant from the John Lewis Foundation in support of the Fabric of Life project. The project aimed to use development of upholstery skills to improve chances of people with the history of substance misuse and mental health diagnosis to recover from illness and addiction and to re-integrate with their Communities.
The grant enabled:
156 hours of training for the Members with the professional upholsterer
68 people to benefit from upholstery training: 28 Recover Members and 40 members of wider community
40x 3.5 hour workshop sessions in basic upholstery for members of disadvantaged members of the local community
Creation of 47 unique items of furniture all of which were sold to the public
Main project outcomes:
A)Increased Members’ employability
- 14Members moved into employment,
- 4 now have upholstery based businesses
- TwoMembers not only have furniture up-cycling businesses, but also provide and sell basic upholstery classes to the community
B)Development of work skills
- 15new Members specifically concentrated on developing upholstery skills
- 6 members reached the level of skill sharing
- 4 trained to train upholstery and 3 delivered training sessions
C)Increased Members’ wellbeing
- Members feelings of self-worth, self-esteem and self-confidence has considerably increased due to ability to create complex objects, and pride in produced products, which are popular with customers
- This is particularly important for Members who can now share their skills by training other Recover Members and members of the local community
D)Reduction of stigma:
Popularity of upholstered products proves public appreciation of Members’ skills. Equally, our customers’esteem of the products produced by Members is a sign of valuing Members’ determination to overcome their challenges and of Recover’s charitable cause.
E)Community engagement and broadened reach:
Recover has introduced the new way of working to engage disadvantaged local residents through workshops. Upholstery workshops proved most popular. 40 people took part in Basic Upholstery workshops under guidance of Recover staff and Members. This has helped us to fight stigma associated with substance misuse and mental health, and to offer people from our broader community a meaningful, creative activity.
F)Environmental sustainability: Saving over one tonne of unwanted upholstered items from the landfillwas a direct result of the project. Now that the upholstery service is becoming known and increasingly popular we estimate that it will help us save further 2 tonnes per year.
G)Increased financial sustainability: Upholstered items have now become Recover’s signature product, in demand with customers. As a result of the project17 Wingback chairs (sold £475.00 - £950.00 each),11commissioned upholstery jobs and 19 smaller items attracted £16,500 in sales revenue, which constituted 25% of Recover’s total sales revenue.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE PROJECT
Training Peer Trainers
The more successful Recover is in fulfilling its missionto help people to gain employment or return into education, the higher is the need in trainers. Out of the team of 20 Members participating in the Fabric of Life project at its starting point, 70% have moved on and 8 new Members joined after the start of the project. This process of constant renewal of the team means continuous need in training, particularly that high quality is our trademark.
Therefore, the second half of the project placed emphasis on training the trainers. 4 members who achieved skill sharing level in the first half of the project had dedicated sessions on training. With the professional upholsterer KamilPecherzewskiwho was instrumental for the delivery of the entire project (see interim report) they have learnt passing the skills specific to the craft and explaining materials, instruments, step by step upholstery process and common mistakes. At the same time, in one-to-one sessions with Recover staff they developed understanding of how to train and guide skills development of vulnerable people without undermining confidence.
3 Members felt confident to contribute to work as peer-trainers. They have successfully guided new team Members at the initial stages, predominantly working on smaller items, e.g. chairs and bench seats. Peer-to-peer training proved effective, enhanced team spirit and made positive impact on the progress of participating parties, a trainee and a trainer.
Moreover, for the trainer, ability and experience of passing on skills added confidence and generated transferable skills necessary for employment. For example, one of the Member-trainers Mel has already started her own up-cycling business but is continuing volunteering as a Recover Member. Running up-cycling workshops for members of the public is now part of the package of the services provided by most craftsmen. Experience in training which Mel gained at Recover will help her in developing her successful business.
Expanding Recover’s reach and a new offer to community.
Along with training peers from Recover Team, Member-trainers contributed to the delivery of workshops in basic upholstery for vulnerable members of the local community, teaching elements of upholstery; patchwork, sewing and making a chair seat.
All workshops were aimed at disadvantaged local people with a mental health diagnosis, elderly and carers, and therefore were offered free of charge. Overall we have delivered 40 workshops (8 sets of 5 weekly workshops) with 40 people benefiting from our new community offer.
The workshops helped 3 people make a next step and join Recover as team Members. Prior to taking part in the workshops, despite needing help with recovery from mental diagnosis or drug/alcohol addiction, they hesitated to commit to this step due to lack of confidence in their ability to fit in or fulfil the requirement of regular work.
We now have developed a waiting list for further workshops planned for autumn 2017 and plan to continue with this new important strand of our work, which
- Increased our efficiency and allowed using existing resources for the benefit of the larger number of people
- Helped deeper integration of Recover Members and the charity itself with the community
- Helped fighting stigma, which is a serious barrier for Member’s recovery
FABRIC OF LIFE: REPORT STORYBOARD
Rescued from the landfill, armchairs are going to the trendiest homes
Everybody’s happy: furniture donors and customers
Armchairs are being rescued by Recover Members: Holly, Marisa, Natalie and Chris
Alison has taken a sofa on a journey from rags to riches
Step by step learning at community workshops
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Overall, we are confident that the Fabric of Life, delivered to the planned schedule and on budget, was an extremely successful project. It helped Recover to achieve its objectives to help Members rebuild their lives and increased our capacity. We hope that the Trustees will find that the grant in support of our Fabric of Life project was a sound investment and evidenced the John Lewis’ Community support policy.
Support from the John Lewis Foundation has enhanced Recover’s credibility and standing with the local community and further afield
We are grateful to the John Lewis Foundation for its support of this important initiative and we made every effort to make our gratitude public and known to our communities.
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