NORM is a volunteer run community workshop. We are about to embark on a new series of wood and metalworking classes aimed specifically at providing practical building skills to women, youth, asylum seekers and the unemployed.
Our current workshops are all taught by volunteers, however with some funding we will be able to pay educators and offer more workshops, more often, to a greater number of participants.

WORKSHOPS FOR WOMEN
We have identified a need from women who felt patronized and excluded from other workshops in the past. The financial assistance from Awesome Foundation will help us to get a series of workshop classes – exclusively for women – up and running. This series will broaden the skill set and confidence of women, empowering participants to embark of craft-based or artisanal business enterprises or simply give them skills to become more independent.

WORKSHOPS FOR YOUTH, ASYLUM SEEKERS AND THE UNELMPLOYED
We have also been speaking with Moreland City Council who see a need for more projects that engage women, youth, the unemployed and asylum seekers. With support from both Moreland and the Awesome Foundation we will find and engage these groups, and offer some heavily subsidized places at our workshops.

ADVANCED WORKSHOPS
Finally, we wish to make the skills available at Norm even more Awesome by inviting highly skilled artists, designers and technicians in to run advanced workshops. We are exploring possibilities with Joshua Gardiner (Ars Electronica) about advanced hand-tool techniques and various digital art forms; with Studio Afterwards, a Coburg based design group, about applications of 3D printing in art; and Dr. Judith Glover, a ceramicist, designer, artist and professor at RMIT.