By Steffanie Dotson | President
During our last report in February, we were working on a new kit that we were calling a 'Robot Kit' with homeless youth in mind. We were also looking into purchasing new, more robust packaging for the craft kits. We now have 8-inch square cardboad boxes that can be recycled or can be re-used by the children for storing their belongings. The boxes are plain white, which is a perfect backdrop for customizing the box.
The Robot Kit actually turned into a Sunset Kit (see pics). We felt like the kids needed something a little more inspirational and uplifting as winter made way for spring. We love love love our Sunset Kit! It comes with a deep frame that we make in our studio and all of the parts are cut from reclaimed and upcycled wood. It's incredibly labor intensive to make these kits. So while we save money on materials, we actually spend money on our staff cutting up all the little pieces. As an organization, we're committed to recycling and upcycling, so we're looking at ways to make the project sustainable and less labor intensive.
We're excited to announce that the San Diego Union Tribune (our local newspaper) contacted us about writing an article about what we do here and highlighting the Craft2Gether Program! It was a very nicely written article. We're so grateful that they included it in the Coastal Homes edition of the Saturday paper on May 22, 2021.
Aside from making and designing kits, we have been busy researching and applying to several grants for funding to support Craft2Gether. We hope that we can secure funding for a more longterm project. We should hear back by August about whether or not we will receive funding on atleast one of them.
The Sunset Woodworking Craft Kit is complete and has been tested out by a group of 3rd graders. It went very well! The children loved the creativity it allowed them. Some of them copied exactly our design, but others upon encouragement, did something totally their own, which we love. We facilitated this craft via online classes through Zoom, which was a new experience for us in our studio. We prefer to give instruction in-person, but due to COVID-19, that wasn't possible. Still, it was really fun to be able to interact with them over the computer. One thing that it made us realize is that giving them the gift of craft and creativity is one major goal with Craft2Gether, but the other fun part was getting to know the children and interacting with them during the craft session-- acting as a creativity sounding board, answering questions, and finding fun ways to weave the craft kit into what they are learning in school. We will continue to try to find ways that we can engage the Craft2Gether students in-person or over the computer, because the resulting connection is an important one.
By Steffanie Dotson | San Diego Craft Collective President & Founder
By Steffanie Dotson | San Diego Craft Collective President & Founder
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