One of our longer term aims has always been to set up some kind of recycling or upcycling project. We’d like to acquire premises which can grow into a kind of community hub (or hive!) of activity. We don’t want much! Somewhere capable of accommodating three types of space – a retail outlet, a workshop, and a drop-in lounge with refreshments. We favour upcycling – being creative and adding value to old and used things. The evidence is that it’s more likely to generate income we can use to support our projects, it can involve lots of people who can acquire or improve skills, it’ll provide a place where people can relax contribute their ideas to our development and it might even offer training and employment opportunities.
Our ideas must have some worth ‘cos we’ve been awarded some free consultancy time by HISEZ, the support and development agency for social enterprises in the Highlands and Islands. They’re going to help us sharpen up our ideas, work out how to add to the supporting evidence we have and advise us on our longer-term funding and business plan. We’ll be getting going on this with them next month.