Impact on people

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

Diane Samways | Hub member

Diane joined Edventure’s co-working space after completing the start-up course.

Edventure has played a pivotal role in helping me set up my successful garden design business Paper to Petal Garden Design. I was fortunate to have secured a spot on their 13th Start-Up course, based at the Walled Garden in Mells. In such a short space of time the course boosted my confidence and provided me with the transferable skills needed to start up my own business. I now work at the Hub 5-days a week growing my design business and meeting countless of influential members of the Frome community. Having a spot in such a dynamic hub ensures that my ear is always close to the ground, and I won’t miss out on any future opportunities.
https://www.papertopetal.co.uk/

Mahesh Sharma | Lungi Babas

Mahesh pitched for investment and community support for expanding Lungi Babas at Edventure’s first Local Entrepreneurs Forum. Lungi Babas is a vegan, sustainability and community-focused street food kitchen & caterer in Frome. He received 1-to-1 support to get investment ready and prepare his pitch to establish a permanent site at the railway station.

“It was of great benefit to our business. It enabled us to express our story, get financial support and a lot of regular custom on the back of it. And more than anything, it gave us the confidence to express ourselves. An opportunity I can recommend for any small independent business.”
https://www.lungibabas.com/

Robert Poizer

Robert Poizer joined us from the Red Brick Building in Glastonbury.

“Here is a group of people who clearly have the vision, intelligence and ability to recognise the needs of their own, and the wider community and respond with an offer that has relevance, vibrance and focus on the underlying cultural shifts required as well as a practical way forward. We have learnt from our visit and look forward to collaborating going forward. Thank you to the whole Edventure team.”
https://redbrickbuilding.co.uk/

Catalia Quiroz Nino

Catalina Quiroz-Niño is a researcher focused on organizational change, participatory governance in social enterprises and start-ups. She joined the tour with a group participating in an EU funded programme.

“We would like to say a big thank you for all you have offered us today, your passion, your knowledge and your practical experience! All this has made our visit a meaningful one in all senses. We hope to continue to be in touch for sharing all the potential experiences that might come from the visit after being inspired by your work!”
https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/

Sylvie Mohabir

Sylvie joined Edventure for the day from the Network of Wellbeing in Totnes.

“The tour was inspirational and gave me a spark to do similar initiatives for my own organisation and community. The members of the team we met were bubbling with enthusiasm and ideas, it's a great place to learn from and get involved."
https://networkofwellbeing.org/

Sam Robinson | Hub member

Sam works with Love to Ride, a global team of passionate people creating and delivering behaviour change projects around the world from Aberdeenshire to Sydney. They believe the world is better when more people ride bikes.

"Since 2012, I have tried various shared spaces in Frome and still do some stints at the range of amazing cafes we have (for a change of scene) - but the space I felt suited me best is the Welshmill Hub. Laid back, spacious, with interesting people coming and going, breakout space, fast fibre wifi - this set up works for me and my varied working pattern."
https://www.lovetoride.net

Kaz Woodbury | Hub member

Kaz is a member of our community workspace and attended various events and short courses. She provides support for women ​​during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period.

“I love the people and the sense of community along with the buzz of ideas and support. I am a frequent hot desker and the environment is inspiring - vibrant, yet calm. My favourite time in the Hub is when they have a team of ‘start up’ students in. The positive energy and drive for change is palpable! Edventure's working relationships with other like-mined businesses and charities really bring home the sense of skill-sharing and camaraderie. It has helped a self-employed person like myself feel part of something.”
http://www.continuumdoulatraining.co.uk/

Paula Neubauer | Get Pickled

Paula joined a couple of short courses with Edventure - Start-up Tools and Making Food into a Business, and set up Get Pickled during the pandemic.

“The most valuable skill I acquired was how to organise my cost & pricing”. “I already have set up my business, I have now to think how to incorporate the social aspect I intend to develop within it”
https://getpickledsomerset.com/

Ian Marshall

Ian Marshall co-leads the Frome Food Hub joined the Future Shed and received individual coaching session from Edventure’s advisors focusing on developing the vision & looking at some specific governance questions.

“The regular meetups helped us to talk about our vision for the Food Hub with peers working in similar areas and make connections that have been useful in moving things forward. Most importantly I think it has given us the motivation and reassurance that what we are doing is beneficial, worthwhile and can be achieved with the support of the community.”
https://www.fromefoodhub.co.uk/

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!

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/

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