L-R: Penny Wiltshire from Derventio Housing Trust with Derventio resident James Peddie
Anyone out in Derby doing their Christmas shopping is urged to pay a visit to a charity pop-up selling festive wreaths and cute Santas for your tree – and help support a valuable maths skills project at the same time.
Participants in the “Multiply” project, delivered through Derventio Housing Trust, learn maths skills such as percentages, ratio, budgeting, plus profit and loss, through making and selling crafts.
They will be selling what they have made, including Christmas wreaths, hanging Santas and festive sweets at a special pop-up shop in Derbion today (December 12) – and shoppers are being warmly invited to pay them a visit.
Children have even been thought about too with the opportunity to make the classic kids’ Christmas favourite: reindeer food.
All profits from the pop-up shop which is on at the Derbion Community Room, opposite Iceland, from 10am – 1pm, are going to The Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The Multiply project is delivered at Derventio Housing Trust’s Derby headquarters in Boyer Street in eight-week sessions, helping people improve confidence in maths through craft.
Ex-army accountant Suzzanne Charlton, who runs the twice-weekly Multiply courses at Derventio, said the course was very useful in helping people gain confidence in maths skills – particularly in the current economic climate when balancing food and energy bills has become a key requirement in everyday life.
She said: “Multiply is a project to help people gain confidence in numeracy and we do that in two ways: we run an eight-week course and then a pop-up shop. I embed maths into the crafts we make and those crafts are then sold at the pop-up shop.
“We also run a budgeting course for four sessions which includes a spending diary and from that we create a budget. We’ll go shopping to buy goods and assess which will be better value to buy.
“A lot of people don’t know their times tables. They go shopping in the sales and if something is 30 per cent off, they have no idea what that amount is in relation to the stated price. In our sessions we do percentages, multiplication, addition and subtraction.
“When making wreaths, we might ask them how many they think they might be able to make in a specific amount of time, and we go through the maths they need. We buy materials and ask how much they will need in order for us to be able to complete the wreath.”
The Multiply project has been funded up until 2025 and has resulted in increased confidence in maths among those who have taken part. One participant has gone on to get a cleaning job and another has enjoyed it so much she has returned as a volunteer.
Pop-up shops are held in Derbion after the eight-week sessions, with real-life maths teaching continuing as participants are given the opportunity to offer discounts as the day’s sale goes on.
Suzzanne said: “I hope that Derbion shoppers will pop down and see the Multiply Christmas shop on December 12. Participants have worked really hard to make a lovely festive display and with all the profits going to the MS Society we hope it can be a big success for them. Maths skills are vitally important, today more than ever, and it’s great to see numerical confidence increasing among those who take part.”
Derventio Housing Trust provides housing for people who have recently been homeless, or are at risk of it. It is currently housing more than 200 people in Derby in shared households.
People can be referred to the Multiply project through a variety of means, including via the NHS and through Derventio’s housing and support officers. For referrals, contact Derventio Housing Trust on [email protected] or Suzzanne directly on 07927 555576.
