WIREDGOV

We're delighted to welcome Clothing Collective as a new member of Homeless Link!

We asked Clothing Collective's Chair, Antony Wroe, to tell us a little bit about who they are and their work supporting charities:

"It’s an unavoidable experience felt by many moving throughout cities across the country; the moment in which you notice an individual with nothing left. People who, with little to no support network, and perhaps without money, food, clothes or shelter, live in our country under society’s radar.

In these moments, we're left to make a choice. Should we be giving this person money or should we be supporting them some other way? If we do give them money directly, perhaps we're not truly helping and just exacerbating their situation? One question seems to underpin every encounter of this kind: how can we best support these people?

It’s almost ironic that we have a growth in the charity shop sector on our high streets. More people are donating their unwanted clothes to these shops, yet we have this problem wherein people in need are unable to get access to clothes. If a mechanism could be created in which those in need could access the stock held at charity shops, we would not only be providing them with clothes, but we would also be restoring dignity in the individual.

This is the genesis of the vision of Clothing Collective; where individuals in need can readily go into any charity shop and choose their own clothes.

We partner with charity shops who accept our gift cards in return for clothing stock held at their shops. We also partner with support charities who exclusively distribute our gift cards on our behalf to those people in need to redeem them at one of our ‘charity shop partners’."

To find out more about Clothing Collective, visit clothingcollective.org.