We hear a lot about creating safe spaces for everyone but it’s really important to acknowledge that we are all different and have diverse needs. At a time when so many parents worry about the mental wellbeing of our young people, when mental health services are broken, when we have a culture of focusing on academic achievement and as a society we have a reliance on mobile phone technology to entertain and inform. Is it any wonder our young people struggle with confidence and resilience and don’t have the tools to entertain themselves in ways we did as children?

At The Big Fandango  we understand that the traditional skills of sewing, dressmaking and quilting are dying out. They are no longer taught in schools and rarely taught in the home. In a direct juxtaposition, we are living in a time of climate crisis, fast fashion is one of the biggest culprits that at the same time as it robs the planet of natural resources, it often relies on child labour and exploitation to enable the cheap prices it commands. At the same time our social media feeds are full adverts coercing us to buy these products and influencers who will wear an outfit for a day and then discard it to landfill. According to Keep Britain Tidy, “10,000 items of clothing being sent to landfill every five minutes, equivalent to £140 million in value every year³.”

If we can keep those dressmaking skills alive, we can enable people to not only think more about what they wear and the cost that has on the environment,  but upskill them to make better clothing that lasts longer and encourage a culture of repair, re-use and upcycle.

That’s what we do with our adult and youth sewing classes and the added benefit is we are also creating an environment where women come together, make lasting friendships, feel less isolated and grow in confidence with the skills they are learning and sharing.

This year we have piloted a scheme working with schools to teach sewing skills to teenage girls who are struggling with anxiety, low mood and school attendance . The results were astounding – not only did the cohort group gain confidence and an improvement in well-being , but the impact on school attendance was equally positive. Similarly our evening youth group shows an improvement in well being and confidence as our young people learn to upcycle, make clothing that impresses their friends and families and learn about body positivity.

It really is a win-win situation but, and there is a but! This does not come cheaply. All our team of volunteers are skilled craftswomen most of whom have also worked professionally in this field for many years, honing their skills. We are a CIC that doesn't have the advantage of peppercorn rents, we have bills to pay to keep our business running. We therefore made the decision we would charge for our  classes for 2 very important reasons:

1)      Our skills have been developed over many years of hard work and to offer them for free would devalue them. These are skills often seen historically as “women’s work” and been poorly paid. Women have fought for many years to have their work and skills respected and valued as much as what has traditionally been “men’s work”. To then offer those skills free we believe would be wrong . It would also have a negative impact on local businesses if we offered tailoring, alterations, tutoring for free when for some of our neighbours in our community do those things for a living

2)      We have found when you offer services for free, often there is no perceived value. In the past we have offered free sessions but our experience is people book a place and don’t show up. Our team of volunteers have given up their time, we have bought in materials and our time and resources have been wasted.

Our solution is what we believe is a fair price for workshops run by skilled volunteers. We have a fantastic studio with fit-for-purpose quality materials and equipment, it is an amazing space. We try where possible to use fabrics that would have been otherwise sent for landfill or donations from people having a clear-out of their own craft rooms. We also try to include workshops that have been funded but are careful to use that term rather than “free” because the reality is that nothing comes with no cost. Rent, electricity, equipment and even toilet paper and refreshments have to paid by someone!!!

Funding pots are of course hard to come by. We are a Community Interest Organisation so any of our profit goes back into our organisation to continue the work we do. The heart of our work is around suicide prevention. We are empowering women from all walks of life to be confident and not feel isolated and alone. Behind the scenes we run suicide prevention training courses to our local community and provide peer support to families who are bereaved by suicide. We are constantly vying for a piece of the great funding cake which is constantly getting smaller whilst simultaneously more community groups are being created also wanting a slice of the depleted funding pie.

It is difficult and I’m not sure what the answer is. We believe our youth work is really quite unique and is  making a huge difference to the young women we support but without a commitment from funders and local authorities our reach is limited. We cannot work for free plugging holes in services and nor should we .  We have always  worked with the concept that  suicide prevention comes when everyone in the community works together for a shared goal. Community cohesion must come with respect for everyone’s skills and input and not of one sector taking advantage of the goodwill of another.

We are a small group of women doing things a bit differently. Sharing skills and knowledge and making a difference albeit in a small yet steady way in our community. We might not always get it right, we ruffle feathers occasionally,  but with a fair wind behind us, some goodwill and the odd lucky break we are getting there!