Page 18 - Community Living Magazine 31 - 1

WORK
A little craft goes a long way

Simon Jarrett visits

Bead Sew Crafty, a social
enterprise that grew from
the closure of day centres

here are beautiful, finely crafted
Tthings on display for sale at
Bead Sew Crafty, a small craft
workshop in surprisingly idyllic
surroundings, considering that
they are surrounded by
industrial west London.
Amrit Singh and
Alsena Lawson,
They work from a former day centre
converted former workers, set up the
visitor centre on top of workshop spurning
Horsenden Hill, a remote redeployment.
(by London standards)
countrified enclave, People deemed
interest in the
near to a canal, a herd of ‘challenging’ became other outlets. The work ethic in
work, or no skills,
cows and country paths. interested and absorbed in Bead Sew Crafty is intense and
the productive activities. professional. People are absorbed, and
or both. The results
The workshop was started by were predictable, skill levels have rocketed. People deemed
Amrit Singh and Alsena Lawson, and creativity was stifled. too ‘challenging’ to attend other projects
former day centre workers who set it up without one-to-one support work in a
when, in their words, ‘we got kicked out When the chance came to set up focused way, independently, producing
of our jobs.’ independently they jumped at it, beautiful hand-crafted goods.
spurning the chance of redundancy or
Learning disability day centres in their redeployment. Those who had Yet this is not paid work. It is certainly
borough were closing and alternatives benefited from the workshops meaningful occupation, and personal
were needed. Both skilled jewellery previously, jumped at the chance also. fulfilment levels are high. There is a sense
makers and adept at other crafts, Bead Sew Crafty has been going for four that people feel they have something to
they had run jewellery-making years now. The freedom from the get out of bed for in the morning,
workshops in their centre. They had straitjacket of the local authority, that they are involved in employment
noticed that some people who were and the institution of the day centre, they value, and which is valued by others.
disengaged from the daily life of the has been intoxicating. They come from a generation for whom
centre, or deemed ‘challenging’, work was never even considered a
became interested and absorbed in the possibility, for whom life was mapped
productive activities of the workshops. “ To have a purpose, out from birth as a procession from
They rapidly developed quite to produce, to do what special school to residential home
sophisticated work skills. you enjoy, to learn and to to day centre, where they would be
trapped in a never-never land of aimless
LOOKING-GLASS LOGIC grow, is what Bead Sew Crafty ‘day activity’.
However, despite a supportive manager, offers to a group previously
the institutional bureaucracy and invisible to the world The path to employment is multi-layered
outlook of the day centre world of employment. and there is not, as commissioners and
continually hindered their work. ” planners always seem to imagine,
They struggled to get small amounts of a single one-size-fits-all solution for all
money to buy materials and stock; The business is financed mostly through those diverse individuals and groups we
attendance and timings were erratic due the personal budgets attached to the name as people with learning disabilities.
to transport times and shift patterns; people who use the workshop. To have a purpose, to produce, to do
their room was in multiple use so work There is some trading income, but not what you enjoy, to learn and to grow,
was constantly moved or lost. sufficient in itself to fund the whole is what Bead Sew Crafty offers to a
Worst of all, in the looking-glass logic of business. They have a contract to supply group previously invisible to the world
the world of learning disability services, lavender pillows to a large, high-quality of employment.
the word came from above that either garden and craft centre in Hampshire.
everybody should be able to participate Their products are bought by the garden Bead Sew Crafty –
in the workshops, or nobody. They were centre on quality, not sympathy. They sell info@beadsewcrafty.com
asked to include people who had no also in markets and a small number of http://www.beadsewcrafty.com/

16 Vol 31 No 1 | Autumn 2017 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk