In May 2017, our mentors from OZARA had a very interesting day with the participants who attended the Chic & Craft pilot training for the last 6 months. In a friendly and quiet part of the company where our participants felt safe throughout the piloting, our mentors prepared a sort of a round table and an open space for discussing the Chic & Craft experience in general (open questions & answers). As the participants grew together more and more each month as a group, we decided to invite the participants to a small round table, a small but relaxed version of a group interview.

The conversation was sometimes quite loud, full of laughter and sometimes slightly reminiscent; after all, working so close together for one half of the year does have impact. When questioning the general feedback, personal well-being and performance of the piloting, we got some quite interesting answers from our participants. The overall feedback is generally good. The majority of the piloting was in accordance with their wishes, expectations for some new skills and knowledge, but sometimes also challenging. The peer exercises and some items and its preparation remains as a recently passed by memory in the thoughts of our participants. They enjoyed the fact of being part in a process where they could see how some old materials can be presented and re-used on one hand, and also excited about the newly gained knowledge especially in design and sewing. The peer mentoring sessions also remain in their thoughts as sometimes hard, but generally good way of improving the common climate in the organisation and in piloting. Some exercises were quite a challenge to them, especially those where there is some sketching or drawing involved. They openly expressed the fact, that now, after all this time, they feel less anxiety, more courage and self-confidence – the group discussion ended with a wish/thought and motivation, to continue with the peer exercises from time to time even after the piloting and after the end of the project.
As mentors in OZARA`s piloting experience…what more could we wish for. It was an exciting period fulfilled with all sorts of adventures and new challenges; in our eyes the pilot experience did make a change in the organisation and will remain alive through continuous and upcycling the ideas of the project also after its final stages…