Community Inclusion Project

As the weather gets warmer the Muto bus has hosted its first childrens’ craft party of the year for a group of 5 year olds. 12 children attended the party and they made RagDolls as requested.

At the beginning of April 2x new starter batteries were fitted to the bus so it could start to travel across the County for workshops and events. The first event was the Drop-In Open Day on April 6th. The event was well attended and 18 people came onboard the bus to talk about the project

The Monday group at The Falcon Centre now supports residents to learn how to repair their own clothing either by hand or using a machine.

The Tuesday group at Fearon Hall continues to be well attended and a popular group. Participants are showing a real creative talent and are producing some lovely pieces of upcycling. A volunteer who is a textile artist and has been passing on her skills to the group each week with new materials and themes.

The County Wide implementation began on April 18th when Muto began workshops at Agar Nook community centre. 8 people attended the group and feedback was really positive. Abilities were mixed and all participants were either low income, socially isolated , NEET or experiencing mental ill health.

The Sapcote Sewers decided that their theme for the next 6 weeks will be upcycled textile brooches as these will be affordable at events and festivals. The group will also make another patchwork quilt for Muto's online Etsy shop.

April 30th was the first workshop at the Warwick Way Estate as part of the County Wide roll out.

Shepshed Changes, Glenmore Centre 12 people attended the workshop on Wednesday 9th May to make reusable tote bags. 

On Thursday 10th May the second in a series of upcycling workshops at The Athena, Leicester with National Citizen Service students. Each workshop was well attended and students on this cohort were all ESOL or SEN. Students made Bags For Life and upcycled brooches from donated fabrics.

“Thank you so much for coming along to the Athena the last few weeks and running your workshops, all of the prep and resources you prepared were so great and it was definitely voted the best workshops from the staff let alone the young people”

The Greenplace, Drop-In upcycling workshop for the local community. 4 attended. 

Muto has agreed to be part of Arts Council funded Health and Wellbeing trail on June 17th in Loughborough. The bus will be positioned outside the Toby Carvery on Forest Road and be part of a creative wellbeing trail across Loughborough. 

On May 17th I met with the Loughborough Wellbeing Café. It was agreed that Muto would join the wellbeing café with drop-in workshops every Thursday afternoon from September.

The Muto bus is back on the road and has been busy with community workshops. The bus continues to be parked outside The Falcon Centre on a Monday morning for the community upcycling workshop.  This has generated new interest and we have had 3 new volunteers taking part in the workshops, 2 of these were referred to the project from the World Mental Health day awareness event.    

Muto continues to run workshops every Tuesday at Fearon Hall and has seen an increase in attendance. We now have 5 attending with 2 more due to start in November. All attendees are socially isolated and 3 have drug/alcohol dependency. The group benefit significantly from being in a social environment and have learnt new skills in rag rug making, weaving and sewing.

Roseby Community Centre has requested the bus attend on a weekly basis and this will be picked up in the New Year.

Muto had a stand at the School of Social Entrepreneurs Graduation event in Birmingham to showcase the upcycling work from the past year. Since the event, Muto has been asked by Birmingham University to place some of their fashion students with the project next year. We had a request for bunting to the value of £100 for another project in Stamford. We also have been asked to make fabric saddle bags for a bicycle project based in Birmingham. Graduates will continue to network together and meet bi-monthly.

On October 20th Muto ran a Rag Rug workshop at The Green Place in Sileby. The event sold out with a waiting list of 7, another event is planned for December. The workshop took place on the Muto bus and several participants offered their time to volunteer with Muto.                                                     

On the 28th/29th October Muto traded at The Textiles Show – Leicester. This is the second year we have attended this event. Both days were well attended and Muto raised £365 in total with further opportunities discussed during the event for partnership working with Morsbags and Alzheimer’s UK.

On Friday 27th Reloved Magazine was released with a full feature on the Muto project. It was due to go into the magazine last month but was delayed. This is a really positive result for Muto after such a challenging month with the bus. The magazine is available to download and from Tesco, Sainsbury and WHSmiths and the article can be found on page 35 &36.

On November 9th Muto attended Action Deafness in Leicester to talk about Muto and look at ways to involve the group in an ongoing project. 8 people attend Action Deafness in St Matthews, Leicester from Hindu, Sikh and Bangladeshi backgrounds.  All have partial or total hearing loss. The group took away fabrics from Muto to create new upcycled products using some of their existing skills. All items will be showcased in the New Year and auctioned to raise funds for Muto. The group also bought clothing during the event.

On Monday 13th Muto met with Rose and Marie from The Crop Club. The crop club were looking for a new design and sustainable development for their packaging and came to Muto to develop some designs using Muto fabrics. It was agreed that Muto would spend 5 weeks with various community groups trialling and making new packaging designs. This meant that a wide range of people could be involved in the making and testing of the products and the community would be engaged in meaningful activities. To date 14 people have worked on the development of the packing.     

On Saturday 18th November Muto attended 2 events. The Vegan Fair, Leicester and The Fair Trade Fair, Loughborough. Two Muto volunteers ran the stall in Loughborough.  Both events were well attended with most of the trade coming from the debranded clothing.     

On Monday 20th Muto was interviewed by the Habibi project. We discussed how Muto helps support ethical and environmental awareness of textile waste. The interview will be part of a project called Jigsaw Stories and will be available from their website.

Monday 27th, Muto supported residents and staff at The Falcon Centre to make Christmas and seasonal gifts.     Muto worked with several residents and left equipment and materials at the centre for the residents to continue with the run-up to Christmas. 

Muto has had a busy December attending Christmas events and Fairs.  On Saturday, December 2^nd Muto attended      Barrow Upon Soar Christmas Street fair, which was the last outdoor event for the bus.    

The Tuesday Fearon Hall upcycling group had a large donation of faulty factory socks delivered at the beginning of December.  This enabled the group to develop a new upcycled sock theme throughout December. Due to the large volume of socks, this is likely to continue into the New Year. On December 6^th Muto held a wreath-making workshop and sale at the Shepshed changes group.                    

On December 15^th Muto attended the Hastings Community Christmas Fair, which was not well attended, and we raised £45.          The low attendance was likely to be due to the venue location and event so close to Christmas.  On Saturday  16^th Muto attended Gorse Covert Christmas Fair which was also not well attended.  Our team of volunteers spent a great deal of time throughout December sorting stock for the  Christmas events and making Christmas themed items during our regular workshops.       

 After the last event on December 2^nd, the Muto bus is being wintered at Cotes and will act as a storage facility until late February when we will begin to use the bus again. This is due to the cold temperatures on the bus.

On December 21^st Muto presented all core volunteers with a Shoebox Hamper from FSSand a gift from Muto to thank them for all their hard work in 2017.

Case Study:

JF has been attending Muto workshops at Fearon Hall for the last 4 months. JF suffers from acute anxiety, depression and has a long history of mental illness and self-harming. The weekly Muto workshop is the only time JF leaves her flat alone, every other time she is with a support worker.

Before JF leaves her house, she rings me to let me know she is leaving so that I can be ready to walk her into the hall, if this does not happen JF will not attend the workshop.

JF has said" I didn't even know these kinds of workshops happened in Loughborough, they mean so much to me as I don't get out very much and get very depressed at home. I'm really crafty and love to make things, even just being at the workshop for a couple of hours helps me to relax and take my mind of everything else that's happening"

Since attending the workshops JF has learnt many new skills and met new friends. JF looks forward to the workshops and has even started to take things home with her to carry on with in between workshops. She has become much more open with colleagues and we have really seen her confidence grow.  The workshops have also enabled Muto to refer JK on to other projects and mental health support service. 

 Quote from an attendee:

“I find it so difficult to get out of my house. It’s so lovely to know that I can come here and feel safe and meet other people who understand what I’m going through. It means so much to me to attend these workshops each week, thank you” ( DH – participant Fearon Hall)