FOCUS: UK Handmade Proud Member of the High Street Hundred
UK Handmade are proud members of The Highstreet Hundred initiative to "Save the High Street".
This is an inspiring initiative set up by Dan Thompson, founder of Empty Shops Network which inspires, supports and encourages people to change their town centres by advising them on how to setup creative projects and pop-up shops using empty shop units and provides a central list of pop-ups happening all around the UK.
Over the last two years, Dan has spoken to thousands of people at events with many success stories:
- Helping people plan projects for Space Makers 'Brixton Village' helped the regeneration of the arcade.
- Talking one-to-one at AIR Time events has helped people start projects like Northern Ireland's ReFound.
- When the Meanwhile Project wanted to get started, they quickly commissioned Dan to write the Empty Shops Workbook to help them; and
- The detailed Toolkit for the MLA has been downloaded hundreds of times a month.
Dan has criss-crossed the country - since 2009 he has been to Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Brixton, Burnley, Cardiff, Carlisle, Covent Garden, Coventry, Kilburn, Leeds, Margate, Portsmouth, Rochester and Worthing.
He says, "I know how a little support, some shared knowledge, a well-placed suggestion can make people's creative ideas and entrepreneurial plans into actual living, breathing projects. After a ten year journey that's taken in thousands of miles, it's time to take stock, consider the evidence carefully and build solid foundations for what's coming next. With more shops closing every month, it's going to get even busier in the next two years.
The Empty Shops Network is a tiny organisation that's tackling a big problem. We don't have a swish office, lots of staff, a London address or a quango behind us. We started by tackling a simple problem in our hometown ten years ago, and now we're nationwide. We're an organisation with experience and understanding, expertise and agility, and we need you to back our next project."
The High Street Hundred is this next project!
The Empty Shops Network are looking for one hundred people to donate £100 and with that money they will:
- run four workshops around the country, collecting information from local projects
- produce a piece of research, with hard facts about our town centres alongside case studies
- create an inspirational Empty Shops Wiki
- present the research to the second national Empty Shops Conference
For more information or to become one of the high street 100 visit the website. We hope to have an update on the project very soon so watch this space!
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