Silai for Skills
Aroona Smith, Executive director of Silai for Skills, has been involved with the project since its inception in 1989 when they were funded by Bristol City Council’s Urban programme to employ a worker and set up a sewing workshop targeted at Asian women. With over 25 staff now, the organisation has certainly developed and we asked Aroona to tell us about it.
What does Silai mean?
Silai is Urdu for ‘sewing’. It is symbolic of the common thread that brings all cultures, age-groups and backgrounds together. It is a reminder of where we have come from and represents the ethos of the organisation and the values we hold.
Who do you help, and how?
We target Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, but we do not exclude any women. If women from specific BME communities are under-represented we go out and actively recruit them, but we never turn women away.
We are keen to reflect the ethnic composition of our students in our staff and management committee. We are up front about this and our ethnic mix is the strength of the organisation.
What does Silai for Skills do?
We offer women the opportunity to build skills, experience and knowledge in a non-threatening environment. We provide courses in creative textiles, ranging from fashion design to general sewing. The courses are a unique, women-only environment.
We also run home maintenance courses, giving women the opportunity to build skills such as wall papering, painting, tiling and plumbing and through our partnership with the City of Bristol College, we offer the basics such as literacy, numeracy and language.
We want to enable women to progress into apprenticeships, further training, the construction industry or higher education, if they wish. Many volunteers and students have gone onto become tutors. We have our own teaching certificates accredited by the Open College Network (OCN).
We offer City of Bristol placement courses for Child Care students in our crèche. Many of these placements are non-BME, giving students a valuable opportunity to work in a multi-cultural environment, which they may not have experienced before.
We also provide information advice and guidance. This is a one-to-one service provided by our qualified staff.
What have been your most memorable achievements?
The individual achievements of women are the most important; women who were very quiet, shy and isolated developing over the year, producing work and building confidence. That is a remarkable achievement for our organisation. Some come in as students or volunteers and progress to become qualified tutors, crèche workers or qualified advisors in their own right. They become good role models for others.
There is also the landmark, organisational achievement of successful funding our current premises in Easton. We raised over £900,000 to purchase and refurbish the building.
What new projects or development have you got on the horizon?
We are developing our relationship with the City of Bristol College, to form direct links between our courses and formal qualifications and access courses.
We have developed a new range of courses for this year and are extending our night-time courses during the summer. We will also be developing a computer suite at our premises.
We used to run successful programmes for young people, and we want to get young people back into the project making use of our services.
We want to sustain and improve our services with more use of our building by the community, perhaps at weekends; possibly a Saturday Market in our forecourt.
What Social Enterprises has Silai been involved in?
When we started, many Asian women were working from home in the garment industry experiencing poor wages and no contracts. We helped these women by providing a structured workshop environment with cutting tables and industrial sewing machines. Our current building has two rooms set aside as enterprise units.
The Silai Nappy Company (also known as Babeco), which produces reusable/re-washable nappies and other baby products, started off under the Silai project, but is now a registered company in its own right. They are selling to retailers, in and around Bristol, and this is going very well.
We have a café on site, which enables women to come together and build skills needed to run commercial projects.
We have worked with partners such as BRAVE, BACEN and BEST to develop an atmosphere of support and advice for commercial community initiatives.
Who Funds your work?
Our funding comes from The Learning Skills Council, the City of Bristol College, ESF Objective 3 funding, Bristol City Council, Next Step, and Connexions.
If you had more funds – where would they be spent it?
With more funds we would run bigger and more workshops. We would also offer transport to engage with the outer estates in Bristol (Southmead, Withywood, Hartcliffe) and allow women there to access our courses. They could definitely benefit from what we have to offer here.
How can people contact you?
Our website is at: www.silai.org.uk
If your group would like to be profiled in a future Voscur newsletter or on our website, please contact Sophie Mellor at the Voscur office Tel. 909 9949,
or email: sophie@voscur.org