Inn Churches - Home Starter Pack Project

Yesterday we visited the charity Inn Churches in Bradford to find out more about the Home Starter Pack brief which they had set us. We met with June Hill, Julie Thompson and Ben who works for Inn Churches. The charity began as a winter shelter and 16 churches are now involved each taking turns to shelter 12 people a night for a week. These individuals are then moved into permanent accommodation and their needs are assessed to see whether a Home Starter Pack would be appropriate for them. The idea of the packs is to help individuals kicks start life in their new home. They contain basic necessities such as washing liquid, towels and bedding. A £10 voucher for use in the charities in house shop is given out with the packs to allow individuals to buy ornaments etc. which will personalise their new accommodation and make their house into a home. Since December 2013 over 60 starter packs have been given to those in need.

Inn Churches also runs a scheme called Homeless Beanies. This involved volunteers knitting beanie hats and sending them to the charity to be given out to those in need of warmth over the winter months. During this process there was some cross wires and the charity found themselves receiving a lot of knitted squares alongside the beanies. They then utilised these squares to create knitted patchwork quilts which were given out to those in need. During the chat Ben mentioned how the fact that these items were handmade really 'made a difference' to the individuals receiving them. The idea that someone had taken the time to create a item especially for them really meant a lot. I really love this concept of making something which will have such sentimental value to the receiver due to something so simple as taking a little extra time and care to create a truly personal item.

During the meeting we generated ideas as a group gaining live feedback from June, Julie and Ben. Key ideas which were mentioned included:

- Strong use of textiles. Textiles is associated with comfort and warmth and can give inanimate objects emotive value.

- A little time and attention means a awful lot.

- Personal touch: A label could be added to the items once completed e.g. "made with love from Huddersfield University".

- Awareness raising: Posters and illustrations could be used to promote the work done by the charity. It was emphasised that we are not limited to items to go within the packs but could do other work which would help the progression of the charity. As I'm a huge fan of illustration and it plays a huge role within my practice this sparked the idea in my mind of creating a incredibly large textile wall piece which could contain illustrative images and a message to promote the charity. This could then be cut down into blanket sized pieces to be given out with the Home Starter Packs encouraging a sense of community and connection between isolated individuals.

- Sewing groups: Create social engagement within the project. As moving into a house on your own can be very lonely to begin with (I've experienced this when moving into blank university halls) these workshops would encourage social engagement. This would also be a sustainable concept which could be continued beyond the parameters of the project deadline.

Innovative - Interesting - Imaginative - Inspiring