Crafting the Community III

Crafting the Community is a volunteering project run by the Textiles Department at the University of Huddersfield to promote and deliver textile craft activities to the wider community. This paper aims to explore how volunteering can be a powerful tool for enriching peoples’ lives while deepening students’ textile-related competencies through placing their learning in social and communal settings.
Initially it will articulate how the project has been developed to bring innovation to the forefront of the curriculum, equipping students with tools in playing a meaningful and constructive role in society. Subsequently the paper will investigate how experimental volunteering can be used to affect real life changes in homelessness, archival threats and rural transport. The paper uses a case study approach to realise the vision of Crafting the Community that empowers students by putting into practice their learning while capturing the imagination of local communities.