Olivia raised over £2,300 for Work-Shop by competing in her first triathlon in May. She swam 400m followed by an 18k cycle and ended with a 5k run.
Thank you Olivia!
You can read her story here.
It’s been another incredible year at ECO Work-Shop CIC. We’ve made a summary below which details all the different things we have done.
Please click on this link to see the report.
On the 23rd of August my uncle Paul and I went to Cirencester town football club.
When we arrived we met Griff (general manager).
Griff was very kind and he gave us a tour of the ground. He also gave me two football shirts, mugs and a pin.
We had a lovely, special time.
Thank you Griff.
From Tim Adams
Since returning from lockdown, the participants have been eager to get stuck into a new project and make the most of being outside again. Friends and supporters of ECO Work-Shop have been bringing in items for us to restore (mostly garden furniture) which have proven to be very popular with everyone. As well as developing our restoration skills, we have been creating pallet wood products that have been recycled from one of our other projects (MIAB).
The participants have been enjoying their new equipment with the support of Stratford Town Trust and their amazing grant of £980. The new equipment will mean we are able to expand this project and develop new recycled products and support more restoration projects.
We recently attended a ‘thank you’ event host by the amazing Lions Club International and our dear friend and supporter Brigitte Green. Over the last three years, Brigitte and her team have championed Work-Shop by providing us with the Message in a Bottle task which we work on most days. To date, we have assembled over 479 boxes 100,590 MIAB pots for delivery throughout the UK!
We were shocked to discover that it was actually a charity event and we were invited to receive a cheque for £500 from Brigitte and the team at Lions Club International!
We are incredibly grateful for the work provided by Lions Club International and the patience and support from Brigitte and her team.
From everyone ay ECO Work-Shop CIC – Thank you x
Party time! Here are some clips from our Christmas Party 2021 – we all had a fantastic time and danced the night away. We had some amazing food, music and company at Foundation House. We wanted to make it special this year so thankfully, due to funding from ASDA, we were able to put on a really special celebration event as we had missed so many due to COVID19.
From everyone at ECO Work-Shop CIC, Happy Christmas x
Meon Vale Pavilion Cafe and Morrisons
Another food bank donation leaving store headed for Meon Vale. The food bank, which operates out of the community cafe/hub at Meon Vale have partnered with Eco Workshop. “It was wonderful that Chris and Corey, who are service users of Eco Workshop, came over to store today to collect and deliver the donation”.
We recently put in an application to the Clifford Chambers Charity for some new educational equipment. As part of our dedication to supporting development through education, we were seeking funding for new participant laptop (Chromebook) and a dedicated POS system.
We are grateful to have remained operational during the COVID19 pandemic and are looking towards the future of our CIC and how we engage with others at our events. The new POS system will enable safer (contactless) payments for when we host our frequent sales events as well as provide actual shop training for our participants.
The new ECO Work-Shop website has enabled our participants to write blogs on their activities / interests as well as develop an online shop for our handmade products. The accessibility of having a touch screen Chromebook will enable more of our users with impaired movements the opportunity to use this new resource. One of our participants have been volunteering for the Warwickshire Bytes Project for over a year and has benefited through this scheme. We are aiming to extend this to more of our service users as it is a great learning aid which utilises databases, image manipulation and data entry.
Clifford Chambers Charity kindly donated £1150.00 from their educational fund and enabled us to purchase both items. We recently used the POS for our annual plant sale and the Chromebook is already getting lots of use for card making and website work!
Thank you so much – W.S. Team x
Over the past four years, we have been slowly chipping away at our garden project. As we are now looking to the summer, we thought it would be nice to have a re-cap on our progress and to look back at our humble beginnings…
We first inherited the garden space from our kind landlord, David. He generously gave us a space which was fenced out and left for us to create our allotment space.
The first few years were slow to begin with, but we persevered and attempted to grow our own vegetables. We quickly found that we needed a solid surface as well as raised beds (for better access). This was our first task that we tackled and with funding, we were able to get installed.
As more time passed and we learnt how to utilise our space, we decided that we needed a shed and polytunnel. It was felt that two dry spaces (for potting and preparing our plants) would be our next big purchase (again, thanks to donations). Both the polytunnel and shed were build by volunteers over a few weekends and have been invaluable!
At the end of September 2019, volunteers from Orbit came and installed more raised beds and new turf. This made even more use of our space as well a better ground for our participants to work on. The volunteers were so impressed by our garden that they donated an electric lawnmower for the new turf!
We were really excited for the new season in 2020 and was about to get stuck into the garden when COVID started… Thankfully, our volunteers maintained the garden and kept everything growing and ready for our return. The space also served as a safe area for participants to visit and water the plants (without any contact with others).
Looking at our garden space now, it is easy to forget the enormous amount of work and time that went into its creation and all the people who have helped on the way. All of this has been capable due to the support from volunteers, staff, participants and doners throughout the garden project.
Thank you
Hello
My name is Daniel Tompkins and I am 31 years old. At Christmas 2019 I was given a fish tank and 5 fish. During the 2020 lockdown, I learned how to care for my new fish at home. I now have 8 fish (4 Zebra Fish and 4 Goldfish). They are called Vanda, Clare, Mel, Alannah, Karen, Nathan, Richard and Martin. I named them after the people I work with at ECO Work-Shop. Mel is my favourite fish because she is the fastest swimmer.
I clean the tank every week and change the ornaments. I enjoy vacuuming the tank but find removing the ornaments the hardest part. I feed them fish flakes every night and I like to watch them swim and eat.
It is great having fish. It makes me feel happy and relaxed.
Daniel
Originally Published: 27th April, 2021