Organisation | BCWP.org

Make, Learn, Share and Repair. But what does it really mean?

Venn Diagram — How our core principles intersect with the eco ideology

Make, Learn, Share and Repair are our core principles and have deeper roots than you may think.

In striving to achieve these principles we contribute towards community cohesion, reducing social isolation, improving the local circular economy whilst taking steps towards becoming carbon neutral and ultimately do our bit in helping to reduce climate change.

By encouraging our creative community of makers, menders, crafters and fixers to support our aims we are one step closer towards achieving our goals.

More broadly speaking, the roots of the project are characterised through the broader eco ideology of Reduce, Renew, Reuse (and Repurpose) - considered to be the most effective ways you can save natural resources, protect the environment and save money.

Brighton’s first Tool Library

Our first step was achieved thanks to the launch of Brighton's first Tool Library.

It’s not a new idea, there are Tool Libraries all over the world and we are but one in long chain of organisations spearheading The Sharing Revolution...

The global sharing revolution is happening right now and together we are spearheading Brighton’s first community sharing initiative

... but the Tool Library is a stepping stone, and once established we will cultivate and encourage our growing community to practice and learn traditional vocational techniques, developing new skills and experiences through the sharing of knowledge and creative ideas and maybe we'll make some new friends along the way?

Along with regular repairs sessions and by up-cycling objects to sell, we can generate additional funding for the workshop, improving it’s sustainability and contributing further to the local circular economy, providing a local solution to the global problem of waste, over-production, and our throwaway consumer culture.

The Community Workshop

Our next step, and perhaps our biggest challenge, will be to find a more appropriate space for the community to unite and collaborate – in other words, The Community Workshop itself enabling us all to share our expertise and creativity.

This workshop space, along with The Tool Library, will allow many items, objects and materials to be re-used or re-purposed that may otherwise have been left discarded or stored indefinitely unused. Timber Offcuts, fabric remnants, surplus fixings, paint, adhesives, paper, card and so on.

And... by forming bonds with likeminded organisations we can collaborate on mutual aims, offering further incentives and opportunities for all of you, our member and volunteers, strengthening community bonds and adding even more to the circular economy.

So, when we say -“Delivering the Tools and Space to Make Learn Share & Repair” - there’s much more to it than meets the eye.

If you're reading this and you're not already a member... then Join Today.

Start your sharing journey at The Tool Library, or Volunteer, or why not Make a Donation and help support us in building the Brighton Community Workshop!

Setting up the Tool Library is slowly becoming a reality.

A big thank you to all those that have donated tools and all those that have given their time to organise what space we have in The Crypt.

Cubby holes, perfect for organising tools

We definitely have a plan, and we want to get it into place, but to do this we will need help.

We took a decision this week to take the plunge and order new IT equipment to have a hub where we can continue to catalogue our tools. We will be sorting out the useable, from the less-usable and the unusable, but rest assured we will not be wasting any of the donations we have been given; we will find a use for everything.

Building a Counter

The new IT equipment will be housed in a custom-built counter area, situated by at the entrance to the workshop. The counter will be our point-of-sale station/mini office, a convenient space for now to manage all the ins & outs of the tool library/project - processing new members, checking in/out tools, inventory management, signposting for local businesses and partner/support organisations, flyers and leaflets covering details on how to carry out simple DIY tasks and info on future maker & repair sessions.

Tool Procurement

We have been donated a huge amount of tools. But we still need to purchase many cordless power tools.

The results of the survey we carried out gave us a good idea about the tools our members want to borrow and we will be purchasing our first batch of these from local suppliers over the next few days.

We still have a garage full of donated tools along with all the tools already at The Crypt. The garage will remain as a repository for some of the larger tools we can not have in The Crypt, some are petrol powered and others will take up too much room and get in the way, so for now they will stay, but we will need to move them eventually - Our priority is dealing with the tools we already have in The Crypt.

"To get things done we will need a lot of help."

Our first Maker Projects

The counter is going to be custom made by us and it would be good to get help from a few competent woodworkers.

We will also need to make some moveable workstations or workbenches and a crafting space for the less messy crafting activities - sewing, knitting, leatherwork, and similar. We hope to set up a more ‘messy’ workshop space sometime next year, we want to limit the kind of dusty/noisy activities in the crypt as we don’t thinks it's suitable for larger scale, messy/dusty/noisy projects.

Making all the infrastructure for The Crypt and sorting and organising all the tools is very labour intensive and we really need help.Please consider the importance of coming along and helping, money greases the wheels and creates opportunities. But it is you, our members and supporters that will drive this Project forward.

Our thoughts on Opening Times

We are looking to open The Crypt for at least 4 hours a day, on the days that we are open and we are hoping to be open eight days in every fortnight. Because of our location, we are prohibited to open on Sundays.

Several people have stepped up and put themselves forward to staff The Crypt already, but we do need more help so we can be open longer and for more days.

If you are able to donate two hours of your time a fortnight to help us with the setting up of the Tool Library and staffing The Crypt please do get in touch, send an email to admin@bcw.org.uk and we will contact you to discuss how you can help with this aspect of the project.

Funding, Expenses & Grant Applications

Now our funds are taking a huge hit from the purchases, services, and other costs we have to cover.

We started the financial year with nearly £9,000.

We currently have a balance of just over £8,000 - we will be paying over £600 for insurance and we have budgeted for a spend of £1,500 on IT kit (PC, printer, etc) - we have a budget of £4,000 for cordless tools and £1,000 for other tools.

This spending will leave us with about £1,000 (holding £1,000 as a contingency fund).

If we can get any items donated at the spec we want then that will be great.

Becoming a Supporter Member would help but what we really want to do is some proper fundraising. The Covid crisis is hampering progress in organising events - where potential fundraising comes from entrance fees and sales.

Being awarded monies from grants is never a guarantee but we really need volunteers that have experience with and can help with future grant applications getting involved and helping.

& Finally...

The most important part of what we do is community, that is why when we started this Project we made COMMUNITY a major part of our name.

There really is a lot of things to do. We need your help, but more importantly we need you to get involved.

We have done a lot of hard work already, but it has been made harder because of the restrictions we’ve all been living through, coupled with the fact we didn’t have a space to organise from. Now we have a space and whilst there are still limits in place, we can organise volunteers if we have the pledges of help.

Please consider the importance of coming along and helping, money greases the wheels and creates opportunities.

But it is you, our members and supporters that will drive this Project forward and make it a success.