Voluntary Work: Funded Projects

Crafting4Good worked on projects funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to provide voluntary work opportunities within its creative environment which would contribute to the overall sustainability of the organisation, after a very challenging 2023!

The first phase was to tackle the huge backlog of unsorted art and craft donations that we had to move from place to place since the summer, when we had to leave our retail shop in Wakefield.

Community Benefits: 

Volunteers helped to move, organise and downsize the mountain, unearthing as-yet-unknown goodies so they could be put to good use, rather than gathering dust in storage.

A large amount of surplus was used to create a Craft Room at Tieve Tara, a doctor's surgery in Airedale, Castleford.  Further free surplus was distributed to various community groups, helping to promote wellbeing and positive mental health through creativity.

Sustainable Income: 

We also distribute and rehome art and craft supplies through our eBay shop, generating valuable funds to fuel our social enterprise.  Both community groups and individuals buy from us, and our bundles have gone down particularly well!

All of this keeps unwanted art and craft items out of landfill, provides voluntary work for keen individuals and will set us on the path to start accepting donations again in the future.

If you or someone you know live in the Wakefield area and would like to be involved, please keep an eye on our volunteering opportunities.

Skill Up! eBay & Digital Skills Classroom

Our second project helped launch a new project to support our community, create further voluntary work and provide skill development through eBay Training and "Skill Up!" - a virtual classroom for learning basic digital skills and practical psychology tools.

This project was to build on the previous one, once the donations were being unearthed, sorted and organised, with an aim to:

- Create another office-based team of volunteers

- Provide hands-on work experience and skill development opportunities through eBay Training

- Develop a Virtual Classroom for learning modern digital skills and tools for psychological wellbeing

The Classroom will be a free online portal with various "classes" based on topics we need our volunteers to have knowledge on, such as:

- Basic Digital Skills

- Canva, Google, eBay- Social media

- Website content updates

- Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This helps volunteers gain valuable skills for remote volunteering and/or paid work and provides work experience and references whilst supporting Crafting4Good's sustainability goals.

A third project is still in progress but builds on the previous two, going out into the community to raise awareness, run free workshops, provide supplies and ideas, recruit lead volunteer connectors and build a creative library of activities for others to use.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit UK Shared Prosperity Fund Prospectus.