Empowerment through skill-sharing.
Our Story
Holdfast Collective operated under the name TFE for a decade between 2012 until 2022. We have recently changed our name as we welcome new tutors, new methods of organising, and new energy for the project.
In 2012, a group of three womxn came together to run a carpentry workshop for womxn and LBGTQI folk in Bristol; Tools For Empowerment (TFE).
We all worked with wood and tools in different capacities, and were aware that at some point in our fledgling careers we had each come up against unnecessarily challenging learning environments due to our genders. We decided that it would be valuable to create an inclusive space to learn from one another that could exist without judgement.
The popularity of the course and enthusiasm of the response has since led to the running of multiple courses in Bristol and beyond. We have expanded to working with all marginalised groups, for whom issues of intimidation, exclusion and condescension are common to their experience. We have worked with Womxn, the LBGQTIA community, people with mental health diagnosis, homeless individuals, street sex workers and refugees.
Over the years we have collaborated with The Bristol Wood Recycling Project to run regular courses at their workshops. We have since received national media interest, received funding from LUSH, and collaborated to run a course to at the Small is Beautiful festival at Centre of Alternative Technology (C.A.T) in Wales. Two teachers from TFE have since been asked to teach on the Timber Frame Self Build Course, and Masters of Architecture build week at C.A.T, and two of us have also tutored in the wood fabrication department at Goldsmiths University. TFE have worked with the Queen Mary Mental Health Service (Riverside) in London to offer tools and teaching to women who require mental health support, and have worked with One25, in Bristol, to facilitate occupational therapy courses for vulnerable people.
We have some exciting collaborations due to begin this year with a youth mental health support group, a womxn, trans and non binary ship refurbishment, and the building of a new Queer social space in London. Soon to be announced.
We now have six tutors with differing minority gendered, racial, and ancestral experiences, and a permanent teaching space in St Anne's, Bristol where we can run a variety of day and week long courses, one-to one training, and offer a safe learning environment for vulnerable groups and individuals.
We have purchased portable benches, drills and hand tools with our funding to date and are seeking further funding for the purchase of more equipment to teach larger groups, a wider variety of skills, to subsidise workshops for vulnerable groups with limited or no funding, and ensure we meet all the necessary safety requirements to run courses using power tools and machinery.
TFE aims to:
Provide employment and training to womxn, LBGQTIA and marginalised groups, and learning space to black and brown communities, led by bIPOC TUTORS.
Make positive contributions through skill-sharing.
Empower individuals through realising and recognising their innate capabilities.
Incorporate awareness of sustainable buildling practice.
Partcipate in a wider community of educational practices that support those who feel less comfortable in traditional learning environments.
Stay not-for-profit.
