Comms for Change in a Nutshell
Comms for Change is a hands-on course for those who want to promote positive change and ethical initiatives or businesses. You will gain sought after communications skills and experience whilst participating in your local community. Through helping a local organisation solve a real comms challenge, you will boost your knowledge of, and confidence communicating about complex topics.
Meeting in person and using Edventure’s learning by doing approach, you’ll form a team to develop communications ideas and plans before delivering them. Supported every step of the way, you’ll receive training from industry professionals on core communication skills and knowledge such as understanding your audience, storytelling, making engaging digital content, writing and speaking with impact and a broader understanding of the communications space in general. You’ll also develop your problem solving and team working skills.
Edventure courses are fun, empowering and all about doing. Leave with evidence of the knowledge and skills you have acquired, with a supportive community around you and feeling like you’ve developed your voice.
Comms for Change
Days and time: Thursdays, 9.15 to 2.45pm with 3ish hours a week in your own time
Dates:
Term 1: 10 October 2024 to 19 December 2024 (excluding 31 October)
Term 2: 9 January 2025 to 27 March 2025 (excluding 20 February)
Cost: free
In this course, your challenge will be set by Green and Healthy Frome, a unique partnership programme of Edventure Frome, Frome Medical Practice and Frome Town Council. This programme is creating positive change in Frome through focusing on the links between our environment and our well-being – on climate and health. After the course, you will be better equipped to communicate about social and environmental purpose in your chosen area of work.
Edventure course teams have supported numerous local organisations, initiatives and causes over the last ten years, here are just a few of them:
Edventure’s Make:Shed
Edventure’s Make:Shed is a weekly open workshop space for people aged 18-35ish to work on practical and creative projects, individually or with others. Drop in on a Thursday to meet some of the Edventure team and see one of our enterprising courses in action.
Share Shop
Share Shop, the team helped build and launch the shop, source the objects, figure out the business model and wrote the blueprint that has helped countless library of things launch throughout the country.
Frome’s Community Fridge
Frome’s Community Fridge, the team turned a disused toilet block in the middle of town into the ever popular community fridge. Now located behind the Town Hall, the fridge has saved eight Wembley stadiums worth of food from landfill since 2014.
Loop
Loop, the team turned Frome’s compost club into a fully functioning community composting business. As well as mastering the business model and signing up customers, the group had to learn to navigate Frome by cargo trike.
What you can get out of our courses
You can get lots of different things from the learning-by-doing approach we use in our courses including:
- Skills and qualities to bring ideas to life or take into new jobs
- Confidence and a sense of possibility
- Connection to a supportive community
- Experience
- New direction and energy
Case study
Lily – skills and qualities
“Many of the skills I learnt during my time with Edventure had a direct impact on my ability to confidently move forward into setting up my own project.”
Lily joined an Edventure Enterprising Course to help tackle food waste in Frome that led to us setting up the first UK Community Fridge. She went on to set up The Pitney Farm cafe to help people reconnect with where their food comes from, selling local, organic veg and running community events.
Case study
Mandy – connection to a supportive community
“Learning at Edventure, I now feel connected to a wider and very supportive community. I feel encouraged to think big, and through coaching at Edventure, the Frome Wardrobe Collective is now inspired to apply for our first piece of funding, in order to become a recognised organisation that is resilient and long-lasting, and running a whole series of inclusive community clothes swaps.”
Case study
Ben S – confidence and a sense of possibility
“I would say my work with Loop Frome has informed why I’m standing as a town councillor. I think it’s informed my personal idea around agency and how you can have an idea and with a group of people you can come together and make something and make change and it’s perfectly possible to do that.”
Ben joined an Edventure Enterprising Course and co-created Loop Frome, a local Community Interest Company focused on soil regeneration and the circular economy. After Edventure, Ben continued to work with Loop which he helped to set up as part of his course and is also now a Frome Town Councilor.
Case study
Ben G – Experience
“I leveraged the experience of working on our challenge to get my first full-time job in London where I had the opportunity to work closely with 100’s of early-stage start-ups as they went through the challenging journey of founding a company and raising funds.”
Ben joined an Edventure Enterprising course to help relaunch Share Shop and used the experience to find his first full-time job.
Case study
Camilla – new direction and energy
“I joined Edventure because I wanted an education that really helps me find what I love to do and that teaches me about life. Edventure gave me a blank canvas to experiment on. The freedom and every growing opportunity that have come my way since being involved with Edventure has in turn challenged me to learn to recognise what is truly right for me.”
Camilla joined an Edventure Enterprising course. After Edventure, Camilla set up a traditional sign writing business, and went on to become a director at the Flameworks, a community arts center in Plymouth.
Who are the courses for?
Everyone! We are looking to make teams of people with diverse backgrounds and skills who are motivated and are up for a challenge. Sign-up for a course because you want to learn from it, learn from each other and make the world a better place to be.
Previous participants have been a wide range of ages, from 19 to 59. Some left school at 16 and others have been to university. Some have just started work and others have had long careers already. Some have been or are craftspeople or artists and others have worked in the public or private sectors. Our courses are designed to be inclusive and welcoming environments and meeting people you might not normally meet is part of the fun and the learning experience.
What if I don’t live in Frome or Somerset?
You’re very welcome to enroll, though you’ll need to arrange temporary accommodation in Frome or nearby. We’ve hosted students from many different places, even as far away as California. While Edventure can assist in finding accommodation (often at a reduced rate), you’re responsible for arranging it. Please feel free to speak to us about this.
Participating in one of our courses offers a chance to immerse yourself in the course and Frome. There are many exciting and innovative community initiatives to discover – as well as past Enterprising projects there is Green and Healthy Frome – an innovative partnership focused on community-led health and climate solutions – Sustainable Frome, The Independent Market, Independents for Frome who run our council, and many many more. Frome is renowned for the strength of its community action and will undoubtedly inspire you as to what’s possible in your life and future and where you live. Take a look at what’s on.
Are there any costs?
This course is free of charge thanks to National Lottery funding.
What is the project or idea I’ll be working on?
You’ll be working on a communications challenge for Green and Healthy Frome. Green and Healthy Frome is a unique partnership programme of Edventure Frome, Frome Medical Practice and Frome Town Council which is creating positive change in Frome through focusing on our environment and our well being, on climate and health. The partnership work together across active travel, health interventions, housing and retrofit, and community-led networks focused on food, textiles, play, art and wellbeing.
Who facilitates the courses?
Our Frome facilitator is Colin Atkinson. He has a background in adult learning and facilitation and lots of experience running projects and making ideas real. Communication professionals from Edventure, Frome Town Hall and Frome Medical Practice among others will also deliver parts of the course.
Dates & times
Our longer format courses currently run for approximately 22 weeks 9.15 – 2.45 pm on a Thursday or a Friday – please check the individual course. Individuals and groups decide how much they do outside of the course, though most groups plan some evening or weekend events. For dates please check the upcoming courses listed above.
Do I need to attend every week?
You should aim to attend every week, but we understand that sometimes you may not be able to.
Where is the course run from?
The course runs from the Edventure Hub, Park Hill Drive, Frome BA11 2LE. The Edventure Hub was one of our first Enterprising projects, created by a adult student team. It’s a community co-working space full of activity, maker spaces, plants and much more. Feel free to drop in during a weekday and take a look – we’ll happily show you around. Unfortunately, access to the Hub is by a flight of stairs.
Can I try Edventure first?
Absolutely, you can drop in anytime for a tour of the Edventure Hub, which was one of our first projects. It’s a community co-working space full of activity, maker spaces, plants and much more. The address is Edventure Hub, Park Hill Drive, Frome BA11 2LE.
How do I enroll , express my interest or ask questions?
Use this link to book an informal call with Colin, the course facilitator, to find out more and check if the course is the right fit for you. We’ll then invite you to formally enroll. You can also email hello@edventurefrome.org if you have any quick questions.