ST WILFRIDS – BREATHING SPACE PROJECT
Location: St Wilfrid’s Centre, 529 Queens Road, Sheffield
Start Date: 13 April 2017
End Date: 30 June 2017
Grant: £5000
The Project: The Day Centre provides a vast range of support services under one roof. Adults who are homeless, isolated, long-term unemployed, have offending history, live in poverty, recovering from addiction, living with mental health problems and learning difficulties come to our Centre to access Welfare Support (hygiene services, food and nourishment, clothing and personal grooming, friendship and games, advice and advocacy, crisis intervention and counselling) and to take part in their Personal Development Programme.
Key Aims: The Project managed to recycle the previous extractors and gave 3 away to other projects, they decluttered the workshop of redundant items and equipment. They have also achieved many other key goals such as completely redecorating and replacing the majority of the workshop and installing a fully integrated ducting extraction system.
Efficiency: Now the Workshop is healthier, cleaner, regulation-compliant, clutter free, logical and accessible, lighter and brighter, more inviting and easier to maintain. The newly installed fully integrated ventilation system connects every piece of powered equipment to ducting and removes all debris and dust out of the Workshop and into hoppers away from the building.
Employment and Skills: the project is generating and fulfilling orders for Local Authorities, the NHS, Churches, Societies and the Universities. The Workshop provides training, buddying and employment within a realistic work environment with particular emphasis on improving clients’ abilities in working as part of a team; planning and managing workflow, timekeeping, Health and Safety, working on Batch Productions, progressing and dispatching customer orders.
Social and Economic Regeneration: By placing ‘Belonging’ and ‘Acceptance’ at the heart of what they do, their clients are able to contribute to the future-proofing of their own employability as well as creating a community in the Workshop where ideas and energy can be expressed, and friendships built for the benefit of the individual and the whole group.
Sustainability: the biggest environmental improvement was ending the pollution of the Workshop. Increasing use of powered equipment, laser cutters and statically charged materials created a wood-dust smog that got everywhere. Not only was this a real fire hazard but also a breathing hazard. Dust fine particles got into machinery, materials, clothing, hair, eyes etc. Since the new installation, all these problems have been removed resulting in a work environment that is safe, clean, healthy and work friendly.