Crafting4Good CIC

Our mission is to improve mental health through creative wellbeing and resilience while reducing landfill by accepting unwanted supplies that can be used in creative ways.

We are based in Wakefield, Yorkshire in The Ridings where we have a retail shop with affordable supplies for all budgets and our surplus is given for free to community groups and organisations to support their members with their creative mental health.

Both companies and individuals donate their unwanted supplies to us, whether that’s someone who has accumulated too many craft supplies to use, or they’ve stopped doing certain activities, even bereaved families prefer to give us the much-loved collections of their loved ones, knowing they will be put to good use, find new homes and help others.

Companies see the value of supporting a mental health and environmentally-focussed nonprofit as it shows that they too believe in these causes; they donate their surplus, end-of-line stock, clearance, samples, seconds and even brand new bulk donations of art and craft materials for us to distribute to community causes and sell to those on low incomes. We also have companies that donate their offcuts, roll-ends, fabric and haberdashery ‘waste’, paper trimmings, rhinestones etc. as well as other things they can recycle through us and we can put to good use in our shop displays, packaging etc.

As well as our retail shop, we have an eBay for Change store where we make more valuable items, collectables and vintage donations available and these ship worldwide. eBay for Change is a programme of support for social enterprises and fair trade organisations, to help them grow sustainable social businesses in a vast marketplace – we were part of the first 20 businesses to join with a view to creating flexible jobs and work experience for young people and those who may face mental health challenges.

We also have an online store for digital craft supplies: printable card-making and craft kits can be downloaded and printed as many times as needed for both individuals at home and group activities, with encouragement to ‘sell what you make’ at craft fairs and for charity fundraising.

Our group customers tend to be care or residential homes with Activity Coordinators enjoying the convenience of instant activities that you can print again and again (no more costly mistakes or waste of purchased craft kits). Our printables have also been used in day centres, prisons, hostels, and asylum seeker groups, as well as general community groups looking for activities, at home by carers, general charity fundraisers and home business sellers – even as far as Australia.

Positive psychology and art therapy or art expression are the basis of our ideas around creative mental wellbeing – or ‘mental wealth’. We believe that paying attention to your personal strengths, small moments, simple things, nature and exploring your creativity all help with self-awareness and building up resilience for facing life’s day-to-day events and challenges.
We have run subsidised Group Art Therapy sessions so that people can jump NHS queues and get the creative support they need quicker, through a qualified, registered Art Therapist. These ran for months at a time and it’s quite impressive how art can be used to explore and develop any issues and challenges we face.

On the back of the Art Therapy, we’ve also provided many Art Journalling workshops with our Art Therapist leading the group for safety. In these workshops, you’re looking more at creative expression, being free to play and being guided by your instinct to see how it might inform your awareness and thought processes. All materials were provided in a kit, with various art materials to try out and an art journal with both blank and lined pages. People were encouraged to be mindful beforehand, create what came to them, and write about what they noticed. There are many exercises you can do too, on your own or with a group, for example, your family to see how the same ideas and stimuli are interpreted differently by all. This kind of self-expression is fascinating to do and see unfold over a period of time; highly recommended!

Recently we began a partnership with an adult education charity to provide free and affordable workshops that focus on creativity and wellbeing. Our first crochet course taught students in just 4 weeks to make practical ‘winter wearables’ during the cost of living crisis, using a single ball of chunky yarn provided by the tutor: people who couldn’t crochet when they started made a pair of hand warmers and a hat, plus the stitches they learned meant they could go on to create headbands, ear warmers, scarves etc. for themselves and others. We plan to offer many more workshops in the community and develop our own Creative Classroom in the near future.

It’s quite something that we are able to support those on a budget, promote better mental health and wellbeing, create local jobs, offer volunteering and work experience placements, divert at least 7 tonnes (and counting) from landfill, and provide free creative activities to hundreds of community groups which in turn have supported thousands of people… all from art and craft supplies that people and businesses no longer wanted and could have been thrown away. That is crafting for good.