Creation Mill: Reviving Langholm’s textile Heritage
Creation Mill revitalises Langholm’s textile industry through community wellbeing initiatives, workshops, DIY kits, and industry training. Through the LaunchMe programme, they are now ready for their next big move towards social impact on a larger scale.
About the Organisation
Based in Langholm in the Scottish Borders, a region with a rich history in the textile industry, Emma Duncan came up with the idea for the Creation Mill, aiming to revitalise the textile industry, which seemed to be disappearing in their community.
Fast forward three years, Creation Mill has established itself as a thriving textile hub. It now aims to provide training opportunities for young people, job seekers, and those looking to retrain, while also promoting textile art to enhance enjoyment and wellbeing across all age groups. Committed to sustainability, they incorporate a circular textile ethos into every aspect of their work.
Creation Mill’s Firstport Journey
In May 2022, Emma’s inspiring plan made her Start It application stand out to Firstport. The Start It grant helped her to conduct weekly, professional-led textile workshops, offering free access to the community. Within a year, this initiative created a strong and vibrant community. This motivated Emma to secure a £25,000 Build It grant successfully. This funding has been crucial to further developing into a credential centre.
Mapping the Social Impact
Currently, Creation Mill delivers a variety of initiatives, including social and mental wellbeing groups, paid-for hobby and tourism workshops, a scrap store, produces DIY kits, attends yarn, fibre and craft markets, and provides training for industry partners.
By engaging with local young people, the interest in textiles has improved significantly. Young people from local schools are now looking at local textile industry partners for work experience, while the local textile industry has previously struggled to engage with young people.
LaunchMe: Directing Creation’s Mills Future Plans
To further expand her business, Emma enrolled into Firstport’s LaunchMe Programme. This investment readiness programme helps participants secure the investment they need to grow and scale social impact. According to Emma, she joined “aiming to gather the needed skills and knowledge to take Creation Mill forward with the updated information to grow with it”.
Emma’s shares her experience by saying:
“Since joining LaunchMe, Creation Mill has benefitted from some of the practical advice given in the group sessions such as social impact recording, managing the team and getting the minor organisational elements sorted and in place so that it runs better.”
Conclusion
Creation Mill has helped revive the century-old textile industry in its community and create employment opportunities and tourism in their area.
With the guidance provided by the LaunchMe programme, they are planning to move to a larger space to accelerate their programme.
Your Next Step
If you are looking to take your social enterprise to the next level, consider enrolling into the LaunchMe cohort starting in Spring 2025. For more information and registering, click here or you can contact Renae Bell, Social Investment Relationship Manager by email her to renae@firstport.org.uk.
Also, support and keep updated about Creation Mill by following them on Facebook and Instagram.
Visit our start-up page to learn more about how Firstport can support your social enterprise journey.