Categories: Case Studies

The CRICK Project Community Garden

Not only has The CRICK Project created a sustainable environmental and horticultural community garden, the project also helps in developing an educational and learning hub for gardening activities and events.  There have been many volunteering days to turn the derelict land into a space where all are welcome and thanks to a small grant trust from the Barrow Cadbury Trust, tools and fencing were enabled to buy tools and improve the site.

Abi from the Crick Project said “The paint provided from Community RePaint Sandwell and Soho has not only given us an opportunity to brighten up our site, but provided an excellent activity for local residents to get involved in when on site.”

before and after photos of The CRICK Project community gardenbefore photo of The CRICK Project community gardenpainted bricks and stones

You can download a copy of The CRICK project case study by clicking here.

Edlington by the Sea use paint to create summer scenes

Edlington Community Organisation were asked by the parents in the village to provide some form of entertainment during the school summer holidays. With no previous record of facilitating children’s activities and no budget, they embarked on an ambitious plan to provide some forms of activities for the six week holidays. The organisation really wanted to send the youngsters off to the seaside for the day, as many of them do not have access to transport and have never been on a day trip.

Lesley Cooper from Edlington Community Organisation said “We were already aware of Refurnish in Doncaster as we had previous dealings with them, so when we discovered they were embarking on the Community RePaint project it was our first port of call! We went along and chose lots of brightly coloured paints, we had the boards donated by a local transport business and our willing volunteers got to work.” We ran lots of activities ranging from “stay and play” to Teddy Bears Picnic, Pokemon Party and a trip to Maizey Maze. The volunteers from the community began working and the day was a huge success, with the props created being safely stored away for another event.

Do you have a project you are planning and need paint? Find your nearest scheme here.

Getting to know Community RePaint Black Country

SCARF, which stands for The Schools and Community Arts Resource Facility, began running Community RePaint Black Country in 2005. Their store in Eastfield Community Site, Colliery Road, WV1 2QY operates on the same site as Eastfield Primary School.

Since opening, this innovative arts resource facility has supplied quality art and craft resources to the community, which have all been sourced from the waste products of local businesses that would be destined for landfill. They offer a variety of services as well as materials and paint, which includes creative workshops, craft packs, school projects and all the services are based around the environment and reuse.

SCARF was featured in the media in 2014 when a regular visitor, Stuart Bibb, created a Frozen Christmas light display to honour and fundraise for Daniel Evans who was receiving treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Children’s Charity. Stuart raised £750 in one week and you can see the light display in the pictures attached.

Christmas scene and christmas lights display on a residential property

In 2016 they were featured on Channel 4 and had a visit from Kirstie Allsopp, as they were featured on the television programme Love It Or List It. SCARF Manager Krystyna said, “Kirsty was very complementary about our store and was excited to look through all of the paint and materials we stock, whilst being astounded by the fact they were all saved from ending up in landfill.”

They paint that is dropped off to them is full and part cans of paint from local businesses, retailers and traders meaning that they will sell a variety of paint that is suitable for most projects. They are open only during school term times on Tuesdays 2pm – 6pm and Wednesdays 1pm – 5pm. To get paint you can contact them through our website or visit during opening hours.

Street art project in Doncaster

Some of the street art, including the artwork completed by Five Five Designz, used paint from our scheme Refurnish. The work was carried out after a Doncaster council employee Sophie Anderson took the initiative to search for local artists to brighten up the area. Over 18 artists were involved and were encouraged to be creative, which is shown in the different styles of artwork created. To read more about the project and to see more of the artwork, click here.

In need of paint for your own project? Find your nearest Community RePaint scheme here. 

Street art mural in Doncaster Street art mural in Doncaster

 

Wellbeing room renovation creates inviting space

As well as running a Community RePaint scheme, they also run many other valuable services for the local community. They look to make an impact on the living standards and longer-term life chances for the 250 people that walk through their doors daily, by also running a food bank, community library, clothes shop, community café, computer room and furniture reuse shop.

The centre had a very tired, unfit for purpose room that they wanted to develop into an area to create an inviting and welcoming space to run activities, workshops and classes. Through the International Giving Fund from Nordson Corporation, the Health and Wellbeing room was renovated using paint donated through Community RePaint and the hard work of five volunteers.

In the newly renovated wellbeing rooms, the centre runs a run a range of different activities to improve the health of the local community with activities including tai-chi, mindful colouring, craft groups, relaxation classes, senior lunch club and yoga. The classes are inclusive of all ages and all levels of mobilities are encouraged to attend meaning everybody can absorb the invaluable skills provided in the centre.


Colourful decorating and upcycling inspiration!

Upcycling is a great way to reuse smaller amounts of leftover paint. Our schemes will often have a variety of tester pots and part full containers, which are perfect for upcycling projects or murals!
 
Some colourful inspiration can be seen from Amy’s bold choice of colours, using paint from Community RePaint Blackburn.
We always love seeing how our paint has been used, so please get in contact with any stories for us to share.

Stanford Blooming Marvels paint poppies for Remembrance Day

Since they originally started in 2014 after a Christmas tree appeal, the community group have gone from strength to strength hanging flower baskets, creating flower beds and introducing new landscapes throughout the town.  Working alongside our RePaint scheme Second Generation in Thurrock, the Stanford Blooming Marvels created a beautiful backdrop of poppies for the Remembrance Parade to disguise the closed, degraded building behind the monument which you can see from the pictures below. You can download a PDF copy of the story here.

Community Scrap Shack receives support to regenerate paint processing centre

Michelle Folkes, the organisations company director, acquired a property that had not been used for a number of years. Michelle’s idea was to purchase this property to create a processing centre to organise the paint collected, separate to the scrapstore.

A local business offered to regenerate the building free of cost. The work was completed over two days, with over 40 of the employees offering to donate their time and energy.  The local business completely redecorated the interior of the building, plumbed a kitchen, installed frosted windows, installed new toilet facilities, revamped the exterior walls and created planting boxes for outdoor space and filling them with colourful plants. The hard work of the local business and the Community Scrap Shack means the local area will benefit from the affordable paint made available from the scrapstore. The project is a great example of demonstrating the importance of community groups working together to help provide more opportunities to those in the areas that surround them.

Processing centre before revamp
Michelle Folkes with the new processing centre

You can download the full case study about the Community Scrap Shack regeneration here.

Fenland traveller community is helping to revamp the neighbourhood

An event held at the site was the first in a series of new community mornings organised by Fenland District Council which aim to enhance traveller sites across the district and reduce on-site fly-tipping issues.

During the morning, the council’s community support officer, Sophie Wilkinson invited residents to paint old tyres and turn them into planters for the green. Residents were also able to collect paint and roller sets after joining a new scheme run by the council in partnership with CCORRN, the Cambridgeshire Community Reuse and Recycling Network Community RePaint. The scheme has been introduced alongside the council’s ongoing general block maintenance, for any residents wanting to ‘spruce’ up their blocks at little cost.

This article was published by the Cambs Times Newspaper and you can read the full story here.

Brighter Futures add some colour to their homeless hostel

Alison Williamson, a Development Officer at Brighter Futures lead the art project that involved the residents of the homeless hostel, 90 Hope Street. After contacting the local council for advice, they were told to visit our Community RePaint scheme that is run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Alison was looking for relatively small quantities of many different colours to complete a Jackson Pollock inspired piece, which now takes pride of place in their newly refurbished foyer.

If you are an individual or group from Stoke-on-Trent you can get free paint from our schemes in Burslem and Hanford that are both run by Stoke-on-Trent city council. We recommend that you contact the local authority using the details given above or check their website for more details on the process you need to follow to get the paint. Our other scheme in Stoke-on-Trent is run by Community Scrapshack CIC, who want communities to develop their skills through play, craft and recreation. To purchase paint from them you simply need to visit during opening times which can be found on our website on the link attached.

If you are not from Stoke-on-Trent, find your nearest Community RePaint scheme here or to find out more about Brighter futures, click here.