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Future Thinking, Edventure Week 4

A time for reflection and planning in Week 4 of Edventure Frome’s Start-Up Repair Course. Written by student blogger Abigail (Check out her ethical fashion blog)

Making Space

The week began by clearing the workshop with Thomas. We used the time to organise materials and visualise how the space could look. Our aim is to create a workshop suitable for multiple uses with features for woodwork, crafts and textiles.

 

A Library of Things

On Wednesday we met with Aliss and Helen from The Share Shop to discuss how our projects can support each other. The Share Shop already runs many interesting events around fixing including regular Saturday morning repair sessions. Find out more here.

Charting a Course 

Johannes helped us to form clearer intentions for the remaining weeks using the GROW model. GROW stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will and is a simple structuring method. By breaking down our task into these four categories we were able identify the necessary next steps and formed a plan of action. We defined our individual roles and began dividing responsibility.

Finding Answers in Nature

We took a day out of the office on Thursday to explore our surroundings with Jez and Amelia.

Jez encouraged us to appreciate the visible signs of the
Spring as we walked while Amelia foraged for interesting plants for us to try. Together we lit a fire and thought about the things we wanted to move on from as we progressedthrough the course. We ate a feast of toasted bread and wild garlic that we found in abundance along the way.

Thinking Funding

 On Friday Edventure hosted a talk on Crowdfunding by Andrew Denham; Head Teacher at the Bicycle Academy. Andrew shared his experience of using crowdfunding to raise £40,000 in order to turn the Bicycle Academy into a reality. He kindly explained the basics to us and advised us on the necessary steps to take. Reward based Crowdfunding is a method of raising money for a project through multiple contributions. Usually an entrepreneur or business will post a project they need help funding with a target amount and set deadline for raising the funds. Interested backers are then offered rewards based on the size of their donation as incentive for investment.

Something to Take Away…

 Andrew’s top tips for successful crowdfunding;

  • Tell a compelling story; involve your prospective customer.
  • Do the legwork before you launch; get your message out there, use social media.
  • Hit the ground running; make sure you have built up enough interest in plenty of time.
  • Know your customer, target your publicity to the right people.
  • Be prepared for hard work; make sure you have time to fully engage with the process – before and after.
  • Be open and honest; What can you realistically achieve.
  • Be realistic; make sure you can follow through on rewards.

Van’s poem of the week;

Week started slowly we uncluttered the abundance of all things unneeded,

inspiration still unmet,

what is it we work towards,

finalising our places in focusing on the time to come festival and fun after solid working strong,

walking long in wilderness inlooking and expressive,

an experience of overwhelming freedom let loose all stress and pain even if only for a few irreplaceable moments,

contemplative pictures painted do we understand who we are,

real world comes a calling.