MARKit

An extension of MotherShip’s existing creative befriending project PLAYgroup, MARKit provides an opportunity for newly arrived mothers to develop creative skills in a commercial context to create saleable products to form the foundations of a social enterprise.

The project also aims to furnish participants with the business training to support their creative endeavours, empowering them and enabling them to gain valuable transferable skills and experience. The ultimate aim of MARKit and the resulting social enterprise, MotherSHOP is to provide a project income stream enabling PLAYgroup to become more sustainable.

In addition to the creative making projects undertaken by our MARKit group, in 2021, in partnership with Bearwood Community Hub and Smethwick CAN, we began a journey to establish a community bakery in the heart of Bearwood. Led by professional baker Albert Smith, the group have been learning to make different types of bread, to begin with via online sessions, leading to a pilot of in-person bakery sessions with Albert at Bearwood Community Hub over the Summer.  From September the group will be selling their bread on Mondays and Wednesdays via the Bearwood Community Hub website.

As with PLAYgroup, MARKit also provides an opportunity for creative befriending – building relationships through shared creative activity. The participants involved are of many different cultures, faiths and ethnic groups, this project uses the commonalities of parenting young children, discovering and learning new things through the arts and living in the same community to unite them.

The participants are all mothers and many bring their children with them. We have a designated childcare practitioner who works with the children whilst their mothers are busy. We require volunteers to support the childcare element of the session engaging the children in creative play.