Sustaining a volunteer-run peer-to-peer learning group.

"I like the group because it builds your confidence...I like the group of people here and we learn quite a bit together. We've just had a course on Asian cooking and it's fantastic."

Raw Talent is a volunteer-run community group based in an area of Huddersfield where there are higher than average levels of disadvantage.

The group was first set up under the guidance of paid community workers, and had funding to pay for course tutors.

However the group recognised the difficult funding situation in the current economic climate and began to organise peer-to-peer learning opportunities in which they taught each other new skills.

The aim of Thumbprint has always been to make a simple tool that supports people who want to look after themselves and each other.

Sarah, one of the Raw Talent group explains what that means in practice:

“I started coming back because I got this random message and I thought 'Ooh, cross stitch I'll do that.' I came and I've been coming ever since but I hadn't been coming before then for a while.”

There is plenty of evidence that network connections help people's health and wellbeing. Raw Talent grow and maintain connections in their neighbourhood and use Thumbprint to help them do it.

Keeping touch with people and more people coming to events are among the the guaranteed positive results of using Thumbprint.