Help build a Women's Workshop using the Walter Segal Trust Timber Frame Self Build method
Link to the venue here
Link to Women's Workshop leaflet 2011 hereLink to latest programme of activities in 2011 here
Please contact hala@nnwn.org if you would like to get involved. No prior experience necessary.
Hala recently attended a Hut Building course at the Falkland Centre for Stewardship in Fife. For a detailed presentation of the processes for building a Composting Toilet and a Woodland Hut follow the links below:
Composting Toilet presentation:
Hut Building presentation:
2011 is full of exciting opportunities to get involved in the Women's Workshop project. We have a site in Amble where we can learn through experience and are building our own workshop space. A small group of volunteers has done the work, with the help of Mary Kelly an architect who uses Walter Segal Self-Build Trust methods. Steps so far have included:
- laying the floor and insulating
- building the structure of the walls and insulating
- putting a waterproof surface on the roof
- fitting windows and doors
- lining the interior with board and plasterboard
- building studd wall for toilet area
*We will be running courses in tool safety and maintenance on a regular basis throughout the programme, and volunteers need to take part in one of these sessions before getting involved. childcare for 0-8 year olds at Brambles Centre very close by while the work or training takes place, and other carer and transport needs can be met if needed.
If you want to get involved but can’t make a full weekend, or want to discuss any other aspect of the project, please phone Hala 01668 219879 or email hala@nnwn.org
Background to the Women's Workshop Project 2006-2008
1. Need for Project
This project recognises that the construction industry culture is a difficult one for women to access, and offers a women-friendly route into manual trades, through self build of a small structure and related training and enterprise support.
NNWN has experimented during 2006 to try to gauge levels of interest in this approach, and has provided support to four women, two to take part in a taster course in plumbing, and a further two are being offered mentoring and practical support to join fully accredited courses leading to joinery and plastering qualifications. There has also been a two-day 'Skills with Tools' event which attracted interest from 15 women, offering the chance to gain confidence in working with tools and site safety. These small steps represent significant progress, and demonstrate that with tailored, women-friendly projects and tasters, women are very interested in these skill areas, including several who would like to develop self-build skills so they can build their on homes in future.
2. The project
The Women's Workshop is a partnership project led by NNWN, with the Walter Segal Trust, Northumberland College and other partners in the longer term such as CITB and local employers and estate owners. It will provide both a physical space and an educational presence, built by women to create more equal access and participation to the construction and manual trades field, with a particular focus on rural women.? Women will initially take part on a voluntary basis in building a small structure, and will acquire practical knowledge and experience of environmental wood frame self-build methods. Women will be supported in taking on further learning in their preferred skills areas. The long-term aim will be to create a social enterprise offering low cost repairs and refurbishment to community groups, as well as sharing self build skills with other community-based groups. The work will also be complemented by a programme of heritage skills, involving further partners, and a future phase will involve taking on the lease of a rural property in need of refurbishment. The Amble site will also provide a venue for an adjacent organic garden, which will also enable women to acquire new skills.
Local residents will be fully involved in the project as it develops, with opportunities for mixed groups to support the development as appropriate. Young students using the construction centre will be involved in helping to clear the proposed site and in preparing the ground.
Women are currently severely under-represented in construction and manual trades within Northumberland, with young women occupying only 1% of available places on vocational training within the county. There is also recent evidence through the Network of continuing discrimination in the workplace, where women who have successfully achieved qualifications (one with distinctions) find themselves unable to gain employment in the construction field.
2008-2011
Since 2008, when we were lucky enough to have substantial support from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust ,we have continued to work on the build as funding and capacity have allowed.
