We are delighted to have been awarded the Social Enterprise of the Year in Homeless Link’s Excellence Awards for 2020. For this achievement, Homeless Link commissioned this film to be made about our work which we think explains quite nicely what we do.
What We Do
Our focus is on people on the edges of society, people who do not have good opportunities to grow in their strengths and to build stability for themselves.
Training
Handcrafted offers a variety of training activities, such as woodwork, catering and crafts, within a positive and welcoming community environment. We empower people to create things that serve as a reminder of their creativity, capability and potential, emboldening them to turn their own lives around.
Housing
We offer supported housing, giving people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness the opportunity to create a stable home for themselves. Our residents are encouraged to build a sense of ownership over their space through choosing how they would like to decorate their own homes. Each home is linked to one of our activity hubs to help our residents connect with the Handcrafted community.
Support
We come alongside our trainees, working shoulder-to-shoulder with them to walk through the specific challenges they face. We do this in a variety of ways, whether helping them to establish healthy coping strategies for struggles they are going through, finding positive activities to do together, assisting with filling in forms, and so much more. We recognise that support cannot be ‘one size fits all’ and therefore strive to make it both person-centred and holistic.
Opportunities
We make ways for our trainees to progress into helping roles within Handcrafted, giving them the opportunity to learn and use new skills and grow into confidence. This includes helping with our different enterprise projects, such as screen printing and plastics work, volunteering in our cafe, The Shakey, or creating beautiful commissioned work for external clients and customers in our workshops.
