Building community is what we’re all about Edventure, so you can imagine how excited we were to discover that two students on our last MAKE course are now collaborating with each other to run retreats in France.

When Sam came on the MAKE course in November last year, one of his goals was to expand on his programme of retreats at The Farm, a beautiful 14th-century farmhouse in the Loire Valley. Sam’s family bought the farmhouse in 1988 when he was just two, and every summer since has been spent turning it into a magical space for creative gatherings. This will be the third summer that Sam is running courses at this venue, with many more in the pipeline.

Courses hosted so far have ranged from art and sculpture to Zen meditation and Yoga and aim to balance learning, relaxation, and time to explore the nearby surroundings.

Sam’s 2018 offerings at The Farm have been enhanced thanks to collaboration with Harry Samuel, the green woodworking tutor for the Winter 2017 MAKE course and the upcoming Spring 2018 MAKE (and one of the first Edventure students back in 2012) and fellow MAKE student Lissi Mason.

In June, Harry is hosting the ‘Earth, Fire, Stone and Wood’ retreat. This course will involve learning how to make a cob pizza oven using locally sourced materials, and include a lot of bare-foot dancing in mud! Once the oven is built the group will make a round wood frame over it to protect it from the elements. This is open to all ages and abilities.

Lissi Mason combines yoga teaching with an interest in art and craft activities, and ran impromptu yoga sessions for the MAKE team during the 3-week course – a fantastic way of keeping everyone focused, calm and purposeful during what is undoubtedly an intense experience. In August, Lissi is combining her skills to run ‘Breathe, Draw, Gather’ at The Farm. Each morning will begin with Vinyasa Flow Yoga, and breathing exercises after breakfast. After lunch there’s meditation in the yurt, a walking meditation, or Yoga Nidra followed by a drawing workshop. 

The Farm is a social enterprise, and thus aims to help more than just those who attend the retreats. 20% of the income will be donated to African Vision Malawi – a non-profit charity started by Sam’s mother, helping orphans and vulnerable people in rural Malawi since 2005. For more info visit: ​www.africanvision.org.uk

Harry will be tutoring the 3-week Spring MAKE course, running from 16 April: apply here.

This week was about getting down to business in each person’s different teams and roles.

For Julia and Rory that meant spending time in the ‘Remakery’ under the astute guidance of architect and friend of Edventure, Graham. They enjoyed coming up with clear ideas for the look of the interior of the Edspace, and began to start building furniture and accessories using offcuts from the original build of the Edspace.

Adam has been busy on the social media side of things, posting related articles and updates of our ongoing work via facebook and Instagram.

Niki has been hard at work designing a sales doc for the Edspace. This has been in conjunction with Tom and Johannes who have provided content and given feedback on the design. Tom has also begun creating a database of potential customers with their contact information.

Hettie has deepened her discussions with the YMCA. They have expressed interest in collaborating in our scheme to offer young people the opportunity to work alongside and be trained by Stu from ‘Chisel and Grain’ in the build of an Edspace.

An ‘Edspace creation’ in the works…

Warm, homemade soup is the perfect lunch to keep us going..

Writing and photos by Edventure student Tom.

The team is now prepped and rearing to go, this is the week Edventure lets us loose. We are now, as a team, responsible for what follows. Whilst this might sound ominous it actually heralds the start of the project really getting off the ground. The Edventure program begins with four weeks of trainings and guidance lead by Edventure, from week five onwards the team is independent and responsible for taking up the learning, making our ideas into something tangible.

In this particular project we have three main areas: the interior design and build, the marketing and sales of the Edspace commercially and creating a model for the Edspace to support social housing and people affected by the conditions of the housing and development market.

We came together as a team on the Monday to get out of Frome and have a change of perspective.
Jez, one of the Edventure coaches, led us all out into the sticks, which around Frome is never really far away.

Tuesday saw the beginning of the team dividing off into the separate elements of the project.
Julia and Rory worked with Graham to design and begin prototypes for the new Edspace interiors.

Adam got the Edspace all set up for social media posts using Hootsuite, which allows us to schedule up to 30 posts in advance to release throughout Edspace social media platforms. This means once we leave, there will still be a wealth of material going out live, helping to drive interest and keep things moving forward.

Tom and Niki began designing the new sales document and marketing materials, with the graphic design taking its inspiration from subtle shapes formed in the Edspace’s construction. Although that will remain a mystery to you for now, but all will be revealed at our Edspace Final Event on the 22nd of March – Book tickets here

Maxine and Hettie continued to explore the opportunity to use the building of each Edspace as a training program, hoping to unite local colleges with Chisel and Grain to offer work experience and eventually apprenticeships, particularly for those affected by homelessness. Unfortunately we don’t have any photos for this as Hettie was behind the camera and Maxine was working from Wales… but you don’t really want to see more pictures of people at laptops anyway!

In the midst of all this we had ITV visit to film Edventure’s work as part of a bid for funding. Edventure have been selected down to the final 5 contenders to receive the grant, which if successful, they will use to remake the Remakery into a better equipped and functioning space.

A big thank you to Allen from Edventure

for talking about the Remakery to ITV

Written by student Rory.

Edventure 10 has come back together for week two, bundled up against the frosty morning air, but brimming with energy and ideas from the events of our first week.

We have now had the chance to settle as a group, learned about the history of the project and the parties involved so far, hosted an event in which we talked to interested members of the community, and ended the week by looking inwards on our personal goals for the course.

Now was the time to further our discovery into the possibilities and parameters for our challenge. Maxine (our facilitator for this week) started our morning check-in with some dancing and stretching to loosen us up, ready for the next steps. 

After that, we learnt more about the accreditation of the course, and then moved on to design thinking.

This is a process has a lot to it (the full workbook is 80 pages long!), so we watched a brilliant 80s American news segment about a group who were showcasing the design thinking process by developing a shopping trolley. It was led by a guy who looks a bit like Ned Flanders from The Simpsons and sounds a bit like Kermit the frog from The Muppets, and through this session we learned the importance of:

• Having a diverse group of people with different experiences and methods.
• Brainstorming ideas quickly and getting them written down, without initial judgement of those ideas.
• Having a facilitator to keep the creative chaos in check by time-keeping, giving gentle reminders to keep on track, and to ensure everyone gets an equal chance to present.
• When doing research, talk first to people who might be ‘experts’ on the area you’re working on.

One key phrase I took away from this was “Fail often to succeed sooner”.

To use this process ourselves, we brainstormed ideas that came out of the soup event and our existing knowledge of the project. We split our thoughts by evaluating what we know and what we don’t know, in order for us to clearly see what research would be needed. What parameters are we already constrained by? What are some of the riskiest assumptions we might make?

In preparation for a research presentation at the end of the week, we had a big discussion about these key ‘don’t know’ points and people who wanted to contact, all linked to the three main sections of our brief, which we used to split out into sub-teams:

1. Design and Build
2. Business Development and Sales
3. Social Model

We then went on a little field trip to go and visit the first prototype Edspace. It was a really valuable experience; we got to see the space close-up, ask about how it’s been to use, what issues they’ve had, what’s worked well, what would they change. We collected this useful information and headed back, once again energised by the real world application of this work.

On Thursday, each of our sub-groups delivered a short presentation and it was really interesting to see everyone’s findings and different presentation styles.

• Social Model
  This group presented their findings on a whiteboard, each writing a different sub-section. Hettie talked about the interesting and varied details of planning regulations, as well as the potential opportunities to connect with other organisations such as community land trusts and homeshares. Adam discussed his findings regarding different types of tiny house communities, including one that houses homeless people, and elaborated on the benefits that these communities have experienced. Maxine revealed more details on the investment goals of Edspace and what relevant funding there is out there that Edspace may be able to use, as well as surprising many of us with the potential personal finance options for individuals buying tiny spaces!
• Business Development and Sales
  Tom and Lawrence created a mind-map on the computer, which went out into five paths:

1. 1. 1. Current business financials and business development goals
      2. SWOT analysis of Edspace (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
      3. Identifying customer markets
      4. Researching our potential competitors
      5. Branding methods

• Design and Build
  This group (which I was in) did a powerpoint presentation in order to show large visuals and images that we referred to as we spoke. Niki presented first where we drew inspiration when thinking about the design, in particular the interiors, from narrowboats, container homes, and other tiny homes, and then went on to show what interior design concepts were most applicable to our project, and how we might do so. I (Rory) explained our parameters and xplained what I learned from speaking in depth to the craftsman who currently makes our Edspaces, in order to find out about the offcuts we want to use in the interior design, about the materials being used and the pros and cons of those, as well as the construction methods and the plans to streamline the process and how that would help.

We ended the week by discussing how that all went and touching on the idea of feedback culture, to ensure we continue to learn and grow in a supportive environment. Onwards and upwards! Next week we unleash more ideas!

Welcome to the Edventure 10 team.

Edventure’s 10th Start – Up course began last week and a team of 8 students have begun a 10 week project to develop Edspace, a community enterprise building flat pack tiny houses.

The team is made of of 18 – 35 year olds who have experience in areas including film making, advertising, business, photography, the charity sector, economics, facilitation and community organising.

Please follow the teams progress over the coming weeks here and get in touch if you want to find out more or get involved with the project: [email protected]

Below is a polaroid pinboard documenting week 1 of the course created  by Students Niki and Tom.

Written by Student Ben Goody.

The end of our project came so quickly. This week we finalised each of the parts to make a complete whole, as well as planned and smoothly executed an event at which we fed, presented and partied with all our supporters.

This event was special to us because it represented the culmination of 10 weeks of hard work and it was a first chance to show the community what the future of the SHARE shop will look like and to receive their feedback.

However, we realise that not all of those who wish to support SHARE and Edventure could make it to the event. So, for those of you who missed it, here are our major achievements and the changes that you can expect to see in the new and improved, local, library of things:

• A new layout and revamped appearance

After tireless hours and a couple of late nights ( one with cider and chips), we finally finished redesigning the layout of the shop.

Upstairs now has new storage units and as a result it is more spacious and easy to find things. The work bench for fixing workshops is also upstairs, giving more room for storage downstairs and more space to work upstairs.

In the shop, there is a new desk area, new storage areas – a ‘garden shed’ area and a pallet wall – as well as a more clear window display, so that the many people walking past and looking in the window get a clearer idea of what the shop does.

• A new referral scheme to help those with financial difficulties in the local community

We knew that SHARE has a lot to offer people, and that this was especially true for people in financial difficulties. One of our main missions became to build upon community partnerships to organise a referral scheme so that we could offer use of the SHARE shop for free – with no barriers for those who need it.

SHARE can give people access to things that they can’t afford, save people money, as well as making ‘sharing and borrowing’ the new ‘buying and throwing away’.

Making SHARE available to everyone will also create greater social inclusivity – a win-win scenario for our current members and the Frome community.

If you would like to support us in this mission, please visit our crowdfunding campaign.

• A crowdfunding campaign

The crowdfunding campaign that we set up for SHARE was the cause of a lot of frustration and stress – making its completion a great achievement.

We wrote and rewrote the story, trying to convey the message in a way that demonstrated how much we cared about this cause and that was presented in such a way that meant the Frome community would support it, too.

We had a lot of fun building the video and spent hours filming interviews, scenic shots of Frome, and a ‘party’ dance scene. Editing came next – around two days of staring at a computer screen intensely.

And all that effort is paying off as our total money raised towards free memberships for those in need is slowly climbing! Even if it doesn’t reach its target, the campaign design was a great learning journey that we can draw upon in the future.

• A volunteering scheme to complement our current volunteers

We knew that some aspects of running a successful project like the SHARE shop take a lot of time and effort. It’s not just about managing the day-to-day operations of the shop, but is a whole host of other things like marketing, social media, events and workshops, and more.

To free up Helen, Aliss, and the current volunteer team’s time to focus on running the shop, we have introduced a volunteer scheme for specific roles such as building a community around SHARE on social media, running repair and rehoming sessions, and doing research for the development of the shop.

We knew that this could be another win-win scenario because it could provide someone with valuable experience as well as help boost the social impact of SHARE.

• A series of posters to spread our story

People want to hear more about SHARE! That was the feedback we got – a regular reminder of what items we have and to ‘borrow, not buy.’

We started to drive an ongoing campaign to reach the Frome community and expand our community through a collection of ‘sharing’ themed posters. The majority of the shop owners in Frome agreed to put them somewhere in their shops, and a few put them up more permanently in their window – an incredible response.

Check out some of our posters below and in Frome shops:

We have also printed these on quality poster paper and are offering them as part of our rewards for donating to the crowdfunding campaign.

• A new website

The SHARE website needed a refresh and redesign. After 3 years it had become cluttered and hard to use for visitors and our team.

After one long weekend of staring at the computer, it was finished. We gave it a completely new design, with a new layout, new images, and new writing.

One thing that we noticed was that many of SHARE’s members had no idea that there was an inventory of all our items online. Although it is an easy to use way of checking if an item is reserved or in-stock, nobody was using it or knew it was there. One change that we knew needed to be made was to make it an easier and clearer route from the website homepage to our inventory.

If you are looking for more information on memberships, the history of SHARE, how you can get involved in our community, or want to check out what we’ve got, then please visit the site!

Conclusion…

What an epic journey it has been, and it all coming together quickly in one week. We started with a little knowledge and ended with a lot, and not only that, we helped move forward a movement for social good. We have helped towards the continued success of the first library of things in the UK and made a close support group of friends for the future in the process.

Here’s what each of the Edventure student team is taking away from the past 10 weeks:

Manda – “I will take away a greater confidence in my role in a group”.

Jasmine – “I learned that it is crucial to take the time to reflect, as a reflection deepens the learnings and our understanding of ourselves

Matt – “One of the most valuable things I have learned from doing a course at Edventure is the importance of putting yourself in roles outside of your comfort zone – of feeling the fear and doing it anyway, and surprising oneself at how capable they are at doing something they want to do, but may lack confidence in.”

Ruby – “Confidence in choosing correct solutions to set up my own business alongside a charity based shop.”

Ben – “I learned how to work successfully in a team and how important it is to have a supportive and encouraging team. Developing communication, group decision-making, and leadership skills has been invaluable.”

Finally…

Thank you to all our supporters and network that have helped us towards completing the project.

The story of week 7 on the ‘Developing SHARE’ Start-UP course

Jazzy Jasmine from Vietnam visited edventure for 6 weeks and worked with the student team to develop the Frome Share shop.

Jasmine is on a year long fellowship program visiting enterprise education initiatives across the world and hopes to set up something similar to edventure in Vietnam one day.

Follow Jasmines journey via her video blog