Getting Crafty with Dacron

SkillWise does a great job in helping people with intellectual disabilities increase their skills, and recently they in turn got some help from Waste Exchange. 

SkillWise provides support, education and work experience to almost 70 adults. They focus on activities with a vocational bent, or that provide upskilling opportunities. Tracey-Anne Cook from SkillWise phoned and asked for help in locating Dacron, as she and her clients were planning to make cushions and pillows for themselves and their care givers. Tracey-Anne had used Waste Exchange many times before in previous jobs and knew that most resources could be located through the service. 

Tracey-Anne's timing was perfect as a local furniture upholstery company had just re-listed their waste Dacron. The company regularly lists Dacron offcuts on the Waste Exchange database. Tracey-Anne collected three of the seven bags of Dacron available and she estimates that amount will last six months or so.

The cushion making activity is just one that lets SkillWise’s clients further enhance the skills and knowledge they have, and helps them to develop their work ethic. More recently SkillWise have sourced other resources for use in art and craft classes including 20 litre plastic buckets (for activities such as tie dying, and storage), wooden slats and offcuts (for modelling and art classes), and large pieces of new fabric.

Being able to source clean, free materials from the Waste Exchange service has allowed SkillWise to access resources without unnecessary expenditure, a crucial consideration for a charitable organisation. “It’s an absolutely brilliant service” Tracey-Anne says. “Knowing that we can say ‘hey, we’ve been thinking of doing this’ and having help in getting the resources, it’s a really good system.”       

Elisa gets some help with sewing	Tracey-Anne adds the Dacron	Jackie, with the finished product