A Community Led Project
Textiles with a Difference
TeX helps to create sustainable communities by recycling, reusing and re-purposing new and used textiles.
We do this by running workshops and events that are of benefit to the community, by supporting local community groups and working with other agencies.
We also create jobs for local people by making Eco Products from recycled textiles, teaching new skills - and we use some of the profits to support our local communities, bringing people together with no barriers to inclusion.
We collect textiles and clothing from your home, office or place of business, diverting them from landfill and either reuse, help other agencies and we run Swishing events that often see 100+ attendees and over half a ton of textiles at a time swopped within the community.
As textiles is often no longer on the curriculum in many schools we find that many of the workshops we run are of interest to young people, whether that is to work on fashion items, to create gifts or just simply to learn how to sew and work with textiles.
We Blog about what we do and you can find these on our main website
Come and join in
TEX is a project within Cultivate Cornwall CIC that works with textiles and waste fabric to produce bespoke designer products, educational workshops and events that brings the community together.
The most significant project aims and impacts are as follows;
- · Enabling skill development - This project aims to enable skill sharing between younger and older generations, achieved through workshops where our designers and manufacturers will use practical and informal learning share their skills with others. These will be delivered at local festivals and from our maker space to help promote community engagement.
- · Continue to enhance community engagement - The development of a social maker space to bring people together to be creative and have fun. This is strengthened by the fact that those involved in the project are largely ethnic minorities and this social space has helped improve community engagement with these groups.
- · Create jobs for underemployed - Through community listenings we identified a number of people, largely women who struggle to find skilled jobs after around the age of 50, often ending up underemployed or working in low paid jobs. Through the development of TEX we hope to provide a number of well paid jobs supporting the skills of many of these individuals, providing more engaging and fulfilling work.
- · Repurposing waste and diverting it from landfill - The majority of materials used to produce our products come from textile and fabric waste. TEX we will be collecting this waste, repurposing and recycling it to produce our products, providing huge environmental benefit, helping promote eco-friendly products and the circular economy but also, providing us with a USP.
- · Support local community projects - As a CIC profits are reinvested into the community, Any profit from TEX will be invested in funding for new community projects that enhance community cohesion through reducing barriers to inclusion for those living in poverty.
This year we have managed to divert over 4 tons of textiles from potential landfill. This has been through our workshops, or festival involvements, our work supporting other agencies / community groups and through our Swishing Events.