The Lantern Community aims to provide a home life, fulfilling work, friendship, social interaction, opportunities for personal growth, adult education, cultural and spiritual inspiration for adults with a learning disability. This takes place in an intentional community which develops from the mutual support that each individual gives and receives.
As part of the activities that The Lantern provides for its inhabitants and others with learning disabilities, the community has been working closely with Arts and Crafts for over 30 years. The Lantern Craft Workshops are a social enterprise – a charitable business trading for a social purpose – created to make a difference. The workshops work on the premise that being involved each day and contributing in a positive way with such a meaningful and worthwhile outcome helps build confidence and a sense of purpose and achievement. It is our strong belief that every individual needs the opportunity to engage in meaningful work and to see the result of his or her efforts formed in a product or service that is wanted and needed by someone else. This develops tremendous confidence, self-esteem and fulfilment.
The workshops give the opportunity for Co-workers and people with a learning disability to work together, each within his or her own capabilities, to contribute towards creating a finished product. The final products are attractive and of high quality so that they may stand out in this age of mass production. Proceeds of the work are channelled into further benefit of all in the community.
You can find out more about the community on http://www.lanterncommunity.org.uk/, and more about the Crafts project on http://lanterncommunitycraftcentredevelopment.wordpress.com/
Donating
Our goal is to raise £3,000 to fund a new kiln in the community’s Craft Centre currently being constructed. We would be very grateful if you could help us reach that goal by visiting the donation page at https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/whynotflytoshanghai
*** our previous fundraising page had some issues hence the new one now created! ***
Cycle to Shanghai 
Thank you so much to Nicolas and Alex for choosing the Lantern to raise money for. We are currently building new purpose built craft workshops and every penny raised by them will help to fund new equipment for these workshops .
Have fun guys !