Our Projects

MakeGood is a creative space in Cheadle Heath Stockport run by Make Build Grow CIC and founded by Jen Samani and Susan Harrison who both have experience working in formal and alternative education with neurodivergent and trauma experienced young people.

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The vision for MakeGood is to create a colourful community where everyone feels they belong. We achieve this by delivering arts, crafts and upcycling sessions to marginalised groups.

 

Creativity helped Jen to reconnect with the world when she struggled to find her place and this led to her setting up Make Build Grow CIC, a profit for purpose company that encourages connection through joyful, creative and uplifting DIY, craft and art projects. 

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Our Funded Projects

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Craft Enterprise For Women and Care Leavers - Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.​

 

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Over the last 2 years we have run 54 Craft Enterprise and Wellbeing sessions for Women at MakeGood.

The feedback we have received has shown improved wellbeing amongst the 32 women who have attended the sessions.

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Some of their feedback:

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'You’ve saved me. You’ve given me my love of crafts back.'

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'The groups have been so uplifting, calming, and confidence boosting. I feel needed, and appreciated. It has given me something to look forward to every week.'

 

'I would be lost without these groups. I feel that I am finally finding where I fit in the world and have even started volunteering and delivering workshops.'

 

'I never felt safe before I found MakeGood, I didn't even know what that felt like before. I didn't leave the house much. Now I have a routine, and I go shopping after. Which sounds like a small thing but it used to cause me so much stress before. I also have some lovely friends now, which is not something I thought I would have in my life. It's nice to have somewhere to go to ask for help with things, or just to problem solve. I don't have family so that feels invaluable to me.'

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Feedback from a business start up - Blessing at MMP Bakery

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I have set up my own micro bakery since being on the project. I have previously run businesses but I joined the project when I wasn’t feeling well and I was feeling lost. I feel a renewed confidence and hope and it has inspired me to believe in myself again.

What skills have you learnt during the project?

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So many skills from mending and refreshing old items and giving it a new life, jewellery making skills, waving, candle making screen printing so many skills.

Do you feel your wellbeing has improved since attending? Please explain

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Definitely, I came at a time I was very unwell Jen and Sue (and other women within the group) were kind and welcoming to me. They listened and encouraged me to believe in myself and take each day as it comes, I feel so much healthier and more confident to step out and pursue new things such as giving my business a go.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

I am very thankful for work you do working with women and empowering us. I am very excited about the future and don’t feel as alone as I felt at the beginning of the course. I know I have a group of women that I can support and be supported too if and when I need it.

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As well as workshops, our Women's enterprise group have had stalls at Markets together, both at MakeGood and at makers Markets. 

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Some of the women have also gone on to run paid workshops for us, and have set up their own businesses.

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Care Leavers Craft Enterprise Sessions

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Arts and Crafts for care leavers runs Wednesdays fortnightly. We craft together and eat together and connect through creativity.

Our Arts and Crafts group has grown into a community of 22 young care leavers aged 17- 26. We meet fortnightly on a Wednesday evening, but also have activities we run outside of this time depending on opportunities available to us, and based on ideas and suggestions by the young people we work with.  

 

Activities include:

Furniture upcycling, Crafts, Sewing, painting, ceramics, Tie dye, spray painting, Print, craft enterprise, podcasting and social action.  

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Feedback from care leavers:

‘Had such a lovely night again guys…you really make me smile and I feel so lucky to know such nice people…I feel lucky.’

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‘Another lovely evening making happy memories’.

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'I really appreciate how welcoming everyone is. It has been good to connect and make friends with people who have had similar experiences. As someone who is autistic I sometimes feel judged but I feel that I can easily express myself more than any community I am part of. I always feel welcomed.'

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‘This group just gives me the really good feels.’

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‘This craft club’s actually mint’

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For care leavers there is still a lot of stigma in society. They are some of the most vulnerable young people in our community, however they still face a lot of barriers to education, mental health, housing and employment. Having a safe non-judgmental space to connect, create together, feel valued and make positive friendships, is so important and is a crucial step towards overcoming some of the barriers they face.

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Our PositiviTREE

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​The young people have been keen to start selling their arts and crafts and we had a stall in our local John Lewis before Christmas where we displayed hand stamped Christmas decorations on our ‘PositiviTREE’. The decorations all were stamped with positive messages and had QR codes attached to inform customers of statistics around care leavers. They could then choose to make a donation.

 

The young people raised £200 and decided to use this money to go out for a Christmas Dinner together.

Their decorations and artwork were also sold at a Christmas Market at MakeGood and the young people decided that the profits from the sales of these would go towards buying Christmas presents to be given out by Santa for to the children of young parent care leavers supported by Pure Insight at our Christmas Grotto.

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Shaping Care Project- Key Rings for Care Leavers.

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We created artwork during a project in collaboration with local organisation PIE (Pursuing Individual Excellence) to show case at ‘Leading Lights’ Event at Museum of Science and Industry and to be on display at Horse Fall in Manchester with other work from care experienced young people from all over Greater Manchester. The young people from our project decided to express their emotions through a paint fight. We covered the space in paper and have made a film, and banners with words cut out from the paper off the walls.

 

We then made keyrings out of some of the paint off the walls in our craft enterprise sessions funded by The national Lottery Community Fund, so that visitors to the exhibition could buy a ‘piece of their pain’. We sold them online and during the exhibition.

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The ‘Keyrings by Care Leavers’ made after the paint fight raised £300 and young people chose to go on a camping trip with animal experiences in the summer.

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Christmas Grotto and Narnia

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The Young people who come to Craft club were involved in the making of art work for a Narnia and Santa’s Grotto installation at Stockport Gallery this was attended by parent care leavers and their children from Stockport and Salford as well with the young people hosting on the day as elves and a volunteer  as Santa.  90 people including Young carers from Stockport and Migrant families living in hotels also benefited from visiting the installation on other dates, as well as members of the public.

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We are incredibly grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund for funding this work.

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