Sew Positive

Sew Positive’s recent award of a £205,000 three year Reaching Communities grant from The National Lottery Community Fund has attracted widespread attention.

It featured on BBC Look East on Friday 20th February and the news was also broadcast on BBC Breakfast today (Tuesday 24 February).

Watch the Look East segment here

The new funding for ‘Threading Connection: Inclusive Creative Spaces for All’ will see the expansion of three pioneering programmes tackling social isolation, health inequalities and mental wellbeing. Read about it here

Sew Positive, the Cambridge charity tackling social isolation and mental health through sewing, has been awarded just over £200,000, with a three year Reaching Communities grant from The National Lottery Community Fund. The Fund, the largest community funder in the UK, distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes.

The new funding for ‘Threading Connection: Inclusive Creative Spaces for All’ will see the expansion of three pioneering programmes tackling social isolation, health inequalities and mental wellbeing. Videographer and filmmaker Tom Christian put together this reel to include in Sew Positive’s application.

A turning point for Sew Positive
Celebrating its fifth year of delivering inclusive, creative health support in Cambridge, the grant will enable the charity to deliver consistent, proven services over the next three years, while remaining innovative and creative, providing support for people who might otherwise have nowhere else to turn.

“This funding is a pivotal moment as Sew Positive celebrates its fifth year,” said Melissa Santiago-Val, Founder and CEO of Sew Positive. “As a grassroots charity still needing support, this award enables us to consolidate our work, deliver reliable services and develop our partnerships with other key charities like CPSL Mind, to continue exploring new ways to help people feel well, connected and valued in safe spaces.”

Addressing inequality in Cambridge
Cambridge has been called the most unequal city in the UK, with the top 6 % of earners taking nearly a fifth of all income while the bottom 20 % earn just about 2 % (Centre for Cities via BBC, 2025). This funding allows Sew Positive to continue its work in creative, participant-led spaces that tackle social isolation, mental health challenges and poverty.

Mental health is the top reason for social prescribing referrals, yet there is a shortage of community activities to address this. In Cambridgeshire, 31% of residents report often feeling lonely – higher than the national average. The charity also has a  focus on reducing textile waste,  one of the UK’s biggest carbon contributors, with 336,000 tonnes of used clothing discarded each year.

At its core, its work transforms isolation into action, and disempowerment into creativity, confidence, and choice. It supports people facing health inequalities, intensified by poverty, trauma, mental illness, neurodivergence or cultural barriers.  Most have fallen through gaps in formal health services.

Paricipants say:

“I’ve learned new things with Sew Positive and taught others crochet, which boosted my confidence. It led me to plan a café-knit group I’d always wanted to organise.”

“Since becoming involved with Sew Positive, I have not needed to see my GP. I’m not cured – like many Sew Positive participants, I have chronic conditions – but I am more stable. I feel as though I have more resources to help me manage my health better and am better able to support my son. 

The funding allows the expansion of three key programmes, based just off Gwydir Street in Cambridge. The first two are in collaboration with CPSL Mind:

• Men’s Hems – A unique creative space for men, combining sewing with peer support to improve mental wellbeing. Tuesday evenings 7-9pm term time. Book via Linktree.
• Sewcialise Good Mood Café – This new programme will provide a welcoming, safe space to sew, connect and support mental health. Thursday mornings 10-12 term time. Launching 26 Feb 2026. Book via Linktree.
• K2Tog Peer Support – A participant-led knitting and crochet group, empowering members to share skills and build supportive networks. Wednesdays 10.30am-12.30pm.  Book via Linktree.

Ashley Bunn, CEO of CPSL Mind, said: “It’s fantastic to see National Lottery funding supporting Sew Positive and enabling CPSL Mind to develop our collaborative and supportive partnership. Men’s Hems provides such a vital, creative and unique place to explore men’s health and we are thrilled this can continue. Partnering on the new Sewcialise Good Mood Café also combines our strengths to provide a safe space where people can connect and support their mental wellbeing.”

A transformational venue
The grant also enables Sew Positive to take on a permanent base at Gwydir Street off Mill Road in Cambridge – the venue where 90 % of its services are delivered. This provides stability, reduces overheads and allows for the installation of specialised sewing machines, enabling the charity to deliver more services sustainably and expand its impact.

Sew Positive, the charity that helps isolated people by bringing them together for creative sewing, has appointed two new trustees to further strengthen its Board.

Theodore Panagiotidis and Ali Pritchard join Sew Positive Chair Jane Webber, Treasurer Joseph Barker-Sherry and trustees Karin Read, Alison Heron and Judi Coe, adding new skills and experience in the areas of sustainability, process improvement, project management and governance.

Theodore Panagiotidis leads the Process Engineering and Continuous Improvement functions at Gen Phoenix, a pioneering scale-up in sustainable recycled materials and the circular economy. He has previously held roles internationally at organisations such as Amazon and Rolls-Royce. He brings extensive experience in scaling operations, driving improvements in technology, manufacturing and quality, and leading high-performance systems across complex environments. He is committed to supporting Sew Positive’s mission of sustainability and wellbeing through creative textile reuse.

Ali Pritchard has a career history in pharmaceutical research and development, coming from a technical background in human tissue management. She is actively involved in community crafting and is invested in promoting the value of sewing and needlecraft for our mental health and wellbeing.

A charity is helping share the wellbeing calm of creativity, one stitch at a time, thanks to grant funding support from South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Sew Positive is a small charity that hosts various classes and events bringing people together through sewing for positive mental health.

Their events have included a wellbeing creative day at Cambridge Central mosque, embroidery kit days at Shelford Library, and upcycling lampshades at the Hub in Cambourne by repurposing donated fabric.

Read the full article on the Cambridge Network here

A Ukrainian refugee was able to connect with the local community and join fellow refugees in learning new skills thanks to the efforts of Sew Positive, the Cambridge sewing charity, supported by The National Lottery.

Zhenya Nekrasova, 26, moved to Cambridgeshire in April 2022, away from her family and friends in Zaporizhzhya amid the ongoing conflict in her home country. Initially struggling with separation from her family and knowing no one in the local community, Nekrasova discovered Sew Positive after meeting charity founder Melissa Santiago-Val.

Read the full article in SW Londoner here

Whatever your thoughts on the fashion industry, clothes are crucial. Not only do they keep us warm and dry, but they help us express ourselves, conveying aspects of personality, taste and the cultures or trends that we
subscribe to.

The problem is, in recent years, consumption of clothing has gone through a dizzying increase; in the last two decades alone, the amount of clothes being bought around the world has doubled, with over 80 billion garments made every year. Each item of clothing uses a vast quantity of energy, raw materials, chemicals, labour and water in its production, making fast fashion a pressing environmental challenge faced by the planet.

Click here to read the full article.