Projects
Barnet Scrap Barn
Filed under: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Barnet
Practicalities
The Scrap Barn at Barnet Play Association aims to support children's recreation, art and play. It is just one of the resources available to its members. Membership of the Association is open to all groups and individuals involved in play provision which includes after school clubs, pre-school groups, child minders, holiday play schemes schools, creches IPOP etc.
We are always on the look out for new and interesting materials that can be passed on to children and play workers to create wonderful works of art and expand their play and creative opportunities. By example, we also hope to encourage groups and individuals to recycle materials they may have closer to home, thereby becoming responsible citizens who care about the environment.
We accept:
Cotton reels, thread, wool, string, rolls of fabric, fabric scraps and sample books, remnants of felt, sequinned and fur fabric, buttons and beads, cardboard rolls (from carpets and fabric), coloured card, shredded paper, tissue paper, typing paper, and paper plates, telephone directories and yellow pages, Christmas cards, postage stamps and envelopes, mosaic and mirror tiles, rolls of foil, decorations and tinsel, theatrical props and costumes, blocks of wax, candles, wire and tools, art and craft books, clean or unused plastic drinking cups, yogurt pots, margarine tubs, plastic plant pots, foam pieces, children’s audio and video cassettes, storage containers, by-products from the display and graphics industries, film canisters, computer games, and anything else that would be safe and suitable for children to use.
We regret we are unable to accept used soft toys.
We can put individuals in touch with specialist groups who accept furniture, paint and computers for recycling.
Throughout the year the Scrap Bank is open all day Thursday from 10.30am - 7.00pm for groups to access scrap and for donors to drop off materials. Collections of scrap can also be arranged by mutual agreement.
Project Duration and Funding
The project has been operating on and off since August 1998. We have funding until March 2004
The scrapbank membership is part of the resources offered to members of Barnet Play Association. Currently, funding for the post of Scrapbank Worker comes from LA 21, Help a London Child, EYDCP and the John Lyons Trust. Some of this funding has been secured for specific purposes ie to deliver craft workshops in afterschool clubs during term time.
Volunteers would be very welcome.
Involving others/Participation
We are listed in the Green Page Directory for Barnet and have been contacted by a number of individuals who have donated scrap materials to us.
Involvement of the local community was attempted by contacting the local scouts group for assistance for National Play Day on August 6th. The group leader was very keen to help, especially since we had donated, free, a huge bush tent to them. However, despite the fact that the request was made six months in advance and follow up phone calls for progress reports were made at roughly 6 week intervals they failed to come up with the goods on the day!
In addition we have contacted a local university (Middlesex University) and registered for volunteers but have received no offers of help. We are also registered with BVSC.
Rather a lot of apathy about Im afraid!
Advice for Similar Projects...
- Supervision and appraisal of staff.
- Health & Safety issues.
- Training for writing funding proposals and reports.
- A contact at a local paper who covers your work.
- Monitoring achievements of project ?261 we do this by: a) Questionnaires to our user groups distributed with our bimonthly newsletter. b) Keeping statistics on user uptake, hiring of equipment, collecting scrap materials. c) Details of training up-take and dropout rates. d) Feed back from children and playworkers about the craft sessions - evaluation sheets.
- Be sure of your ethos!
Scrap Bank’s Contribution to Sustainability
1. We are a repository/depository for scrap materials which might otherwise find their way to a landfill site.
2. We offer advice about how the materials can best be used, and creative workshops.
3. We support other groups - playschemes and afterschool clubs who have limited funds to access materials for art and craft sessions. These groups enable parents to go to work without the worry of collecting them when school is over at 4.00 PM - they offer a safe and stimulating environment in which the kids can wait for their parents.
Overall Look at the Project
Strengths:
- It offers a variety of good quality, interesting scrap materials sourced from lots of places.
- Excellent and fun teaching / training sessions for playworkers (undertaking an NVQ 2/3 in Playwork) and kids on how to use scrap materials creatively.
- Encourage groups to recycle in their homes and play centres.
Difficulties:
There is no profit to be had from scrap materials as groups accessing them expect them for free. The Government should fund such projects to make sure that they are not forced to close.
Opportunities and Needs:
We need a large injection of funding to enable it to go independent, find larger premises, employ two other full-time staff and open up membership to all community and arts groups in the borough. I am forever having to turn away would-be members because of this. Of course, these groups are often schools or OT units that would use loads of stuff and given our really small outlet, they would clean us out in no time at all!
Any offers of a building and long term funding would be welcomed.
Networking and support
We exchange information with other projects similar to ours in Greater London. There is no formal network as such but there are lots of scrap projects around the country some of which are huge. Just explore the internet and search under scrap projects and youll find them. Terry, who used to CO-manage the Neasden Scrap Project was putting together a databank of all such projects but he sadly died earlier this year.
The Childrens Scrapbank opposite the Hindu Temple in Neasden is the nearest to us and we regularly swap stuff with them: (0208 965 5718). I also swap things with WRAP, a scrap project in Watford - they specialise in paper goods. There is a very large scrap project in Manchester called House of GRUMPY (www.grumpy.org.uk) (0161 223 9730) which also stocks lots of cheap paint and art and craft materials. They supply us with some scrap and consumables - glue, paint, etc. We buy seconds T-shirts from them, kids to adult sizes from 25p - 2542431 we use them for tie dye and batik projects.
Project Address
| The Old Barn Community Centre |
| Tarling Road |
| East Finchley.. |
| N2 8LB |