Impact on people

Here are short stories of people we worked with over the past few years

Mark Lee | Hub member

Mark is a co-working member and works for a social enterprise focused on giving charities and the community access to meanwhile spaces.

Using the co-working space at The Welshmill Hub has massively helped me to mitigate the challenges of remote home working. Having friendly faces to share a problem, observation or joke with, the separation of work anxiety away from home and even the commute to and from Welshmill each day have significantly benefitted my productivity and mental health. I thoroughly recommend to anyone who finds full-time home working challenging!

D’s story

D is a young man on the autistic spectrum and he was referred through one of our referral partners (Work Wiltshire, ‘a one-stop shop for education, employment and skills information’). He was not in work or education.

“My favorite bit was carving a spatula - I was a bit nervous about whether I had sufficient skills to make it. Harry (the tutor) was really encouraging and gave me advice and demonstrated some skills. I have learned new skills, met new people and I am more confident about talking with people and sharing my ideas.”

Sylvie

Sylvie was one of 51 unemployed young adults on a Kickstart placement in Frome, facilitated by Edventure. Edventure had worked with local green & community minded companies to create meaningful work-placements and provided weekly training. Sylvie moved on to a full time job after her placement.

"I attended the kickstart training with Edventure. This involved a range of interesting, varied sessions on confidence, intrapreneurship, climate change, and first-aid-training. The Kickstart training enabled me to meet other people who all shared their individual experiences of the pandemic. It took seeing people in person and hearing everyone’s stories to realise that I really wasn’t the only one going through it. We were all in a similar boat (sinking!). But now I am finally moving forwards with cautious optimism. Kickstart has been a massive game changer for me."
https://edventurefrome.org/kickstart-has-been-a-massive-game-changer-for-me/

Allen

Allen was referred to Edventure by the Job Centre, joined a make course, and then got involved in a start-up course. He continued to co-lead an edventure project - the Frome Wardrobe Collective, and got support with finding a job, later landing in an IT support company.

“It was awesome to work in a team, I gained skills and confidence, and lots of support. ”Being involved in Edventure gives life meaning and gives me something to do. I love helping people and being part of something”

Caroline Haworth

Caroline joined Edventure from Hive Portsmouth, a strategic partnership in Portsmouth consisting of a representative group of the voluntary and community sector, NHS Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group and Portsmouth City Council.

"Thank you for a great day. It was so good to meet you and your team members and hear from the students. The tour gave me a real sense of community and what a lovely place Frome is. The structure of the day was perfect and well organised, so a big thank you to you."
https://hiveportsmouth.org.uk/

Katie

Katie joined our 2nd start-up course in 2014 went on to start one of the first Food Assemblies in the UK, an online and in-person market to sell locally produced food and promote their producers.

“I joined Edventure to have the opportunity to be involved with lots of different projects, to find out what I want to do in the future. I wanted to work with like minded people and be part of a community. After the course I was much more likely to take risks, happier in what I am doing and more confident.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/10/new-way-buy-local-produce-food-assembly-coming-britain

Charley

Charley joined the team that set up Share - Library of things. She was later employed by the project as the shop manager, went on to manage an adventure playground, various community projects, and is running a photography business.

“The course had such a big impact on my life. I can’t think of anywhere else where I’d have the opportunity to create a sustainable business from scratch and get involved with every step of the process – from
writing a business plan to actually building the shop interior.”

Ben

Ben joined edventure after completing a business undergraduate degree, and was looking for a more meaningful career. He later got employed by a tech start-up, a social enterprise working in the health sector.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Edventure as a stepping-stone. The best part was that we were able to mould the experience to our own interests.”
https://edventurefrome.org/bens-story/

C’s Story

C. has been suffering from a long-term health condition, she had been unable to work since leaving school. Now in her late 20s, she had some volunteer experience working at a local school but was lacking in confidence and was looking for job search skills.

“I have grown in confidence and I can see a direction I want to go in life. We had to do a presentation in front of people that I was afraid of, but edventure gave me the confidence to confront my fears and stand up and talk in front of strangers, I actually enjoyed this and showed myself that I can do things that I thought I couldn't.”

J’s story

J was essentially homeless at the time that he was on the course, sleeping on someone’s sofa. He had been employed sporadically as a labourer but didn’t have basic English and Maths skills. He has some learning difficulties and was referred to the course.

“At the market, I met a little girl and her mother who showed interest in the things I had made for sale. Not only did they buy it, but they also asked if I could make more. This has made me realise that I have the potential to make money”

Tanya Slater | The Girl Who Simplified

Tanya later also pitched at our Green & Healthy Future for Frome conference to gain support for her idea to “declutter Frome” and create both health and climate benefits for our local community.

“I'm just home from the “How to Make your Organisation Sustainable-ish” course this morning and my goodness, I have just learned so much, had my eyes opened to so much and also been incredibly inspired to what I can do as an individual, what I can do for my business and actually how much I can help people live much more sustainably and take some action”.
https://www.thegirlwhosimplified.com/

Adrian L’Anson

Adrian is a city councilor in Wells and joined our tour in 2021.

Thank you very much for our visit. As a Wells City councillor, I am working with others to plan for effective and sustainable use of the Portway Annexe building which we are about to buy from the County Council. We received from you not only sound advice as to how we can best use this opportunity but also a huge amount of enthusiasm and inspiration. A hugely valuable experience!
https://www.wells.gov.uk