Through our flagship ‘Patron’ program, we aim to revive the concept of patronage under which the crafts sector once flourished. It is a comprehensive, multi – pronged approach to enable, promote and sustain craft based livelihoods. Our aim has been to motivate the corporate sector to don the mantel of patrons for the Indian craft sector. To date we have impacted over 1,200 beneficiaries across Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Our ‘Patrons’ include Accenture India, Deloitte India and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL).

• Companies gets structured CSR program with measurable output and social impact
• NGO partners and artisan groups get access to market-driven initiatives designed to enhance income and livelihoods
• Capacity building of partner organizations and beneficiaries including operational support and business acumen training
• Skill development training to unskilled and marginalized groups including persons with disability, women being rehabilitated from trafficking and domestic violence
• Design support including product, packaging and customization
• Marketing support aimed at evaluating relevant channels to arrive at sustainable and scalable consumer groups.
• Donor’s employees can get involved in volunteering engagements and provide consulting & technical support

         Ongoing Programs include:

• Green Skilling, Bangalore 
• Skill and Craft for Women Empowerment, Kolkata 
• Swayam Shakti Project, Hyderabad
  
  Who are our Partners:

• Corporates: CSR Departments
• NGOs: working in the areas of livelihoods, rural development, women empowerment, tribal welfare, rehabilitation of persons with disability

Kalashala – Finishing School for Artisans  

Kalashala is a novel concept developed by Craftizen for capacity building through customized curriculum, designed specifically for practicing artisans and crafts persons. The aim is to empower artisans to become skillful ambassadors of their craft and ensure that their skill, talent and traditional heritage continue to provide a source of income and livelihood for them.

Craftizen’s biggest challenge was developing curriculum for persons who are largely unschooled. An interactive, game based approach to learning was adopted, through which we impart business skills, production planning, quality and delivery, sales and marketing, story-telling and design thinking, customised for a craft skill / craft group. Each concept is first learnt by doing an activity, then by experience sharing and finally with the help of guidelines and pointers, which are reinforced with visual material to sustain the learning.

Curriculum:

1. Craft journey: enabling artisans to articulate their identity as artisans, the challenges they face and their vision for themselves and their craft heritage
2. Business Acumen: what are the skills required for the self employed and how can they apply this to their context
3. Production, Quality and Delivery: simulation-based learning to enable improved planning and process management
4. Sales and Marketing: 4Ps of marketing – product, price, place and promotion; understanding different types of consumers; understanding current day markets
5. Story telling: The art of story-telling and how to effectively convey the story of a craft and its making to consumers.
6. Design Thinking: De-coding the design process with a framework to learn, analyze and explore the complex, contextual and nuanced practice of “design”

Kalashala, was seed funded by a social innovation grant from Harvard University’s South Asia Institute and Tata Trusts in 2016-17. It has now become an integral part of our Patron Program with unskilled beneficiaries.

 To know more, write to us at connect@craftizen.org