Investment theme: Building skills and confidence, Growing social connections
Re-Tweed, Scottish Borders: £3,500 Covid grant 2019: Sustaining women using a textile training project and offering community support in a crisis.
Purpose: To contribute to the cost of supporting the women to attend online support sessions, increase the hours of the support worker and provide food parcels to those in need which requires volunteers and van hire for deliveries.
Achievements
Setting up two food-banks and food parcel delivery services in two remote villages –both run by ReTweed volunteers and still running now. A weekly food parcel collection service in Eyemouth for our students, graduates,volunteers and some folk from the wider community.
ReTweed volunteers and furloughed staff made scrubs for medical centres across theScottish Borders, for 8 hospitals across Scotland and for hospitals as far away as Africa. We also made and 
distributed 1000s of face masks for community resilience groups, for frontline workers, for shop keepers, superhero versions for kids in hospital playrooms and then we branched out to manufacturing masks for sale – keeping our volunteers busy at home and providing an income for the women in our business incubator.
Our online learning, Zooming and Community have made a difference. Students,graduates, volunteers and staff have all used digital connectivity to help us plan, stay motivated, stay on purpose and create opportunities in the midst of a crisis.
It has meant so much to all of us to have made a difference; helping those who need it -access food, keeping communities and front line staff safe and sending a strong message of the value of promoting wellbeing and community.
It might seem dramatic but ReTweed volunteering has been a saviour for me over the last few months
I feel like I am part of a community of amazing people with ReTweed. We’re all always looking for ways to help the project and our communities
Women’s Fund for Scotland has given a total of £19,624 across 4 grants to our grant partner ReTweed. We are pleased we have been able to support your excellent work in this way. Thank you for all that you do and for choosing us as your funding partner.
