New centre offers support to needy
ANEW resource centre has been set up to support a range of people in need across the community with vital supplies and equipment.
Michael Bamford, shop manager at the Reuse Littleborough charity shop on Church Street, Littleborough, has used lockdown to transform the shop’s back room into a new Parent and Child Resource Centre, which opened its doors for the first time last Monday (June 15).
Access to the centre’s supplies is available to support workers like social workers and healthcare professionals, who can collect items ranging from baby clothes and toiletries to kitchenware on behalf of clients in need.
All resources from the centre are free, but available on a first come, first served basis.
Michael, 68, said: “During
lockdown the shop has been closed for three months so I decided to use the time to come in and change things around and now we have our new resource centre.
“It was an idea I’d had in the back of my mind for quite a while - we’re based out of the Royal Oak pub and we’ve got a lot of space to put to good use.”
He added: “There was a general need in our community for these sorts of things anyway, not just during lockdown, but there are just more people in need now.
“If we can just help local people who need that support, I’m OK with that.”
Michael said the centre’s first week had been a success, with lots of phone calls coming in from community workers who he says were ‘very happy’ with the new resources available.
The centre’s supplies are primarily intended for vulnerable single mothers or families who are still in need of help with no official channels left available to them.
Through an official support worker such as a social worker, Home Start representative, or even a trusted teacher or healthcare professional, individuals can receive baby clothes, toys, prams and a range of bedding, to name just a few examples.
Kitchenware including pans, utensils and electrical items, as well as clothing for adults and older children, is also available.
There are also supplies of walking frames, wheelchairs, crutches, walking sticks and more for elderly and disabled clients.
Items like nappies and toiletries are purchased with takings from the adjacent shop, but all other items have been donated by members of the community.
Michael, a retired printing manager, set up the Reuse Littleborough shop in October 2015 with the aim of putting as few items donated from the community to waste as possible.
In other charity shops, the proportion of donated clothes sold on as rags can be as high as 70 per cent but the Reuse Littleborough volunteers do their best to reduce this through distributing items to the borough’s homeless population, as well as sending regular containers of supplies to the Forever Angels orphanage in Tanzania.
Michael added: “Nobody likes waste and we have so many in our community and further away just crying out for some of these things.
“We are a community based charity and our volunteers do so many different things to lend a hand.
“I’m very passionate about what we do.”
Michael says he and his volunteers never turn away a donation, and that any items donated during the ongoing lockdown are subject to a 72 hour quarantine to make sure they are Covid safe.
Larger items, including a range of furniture, are kept at a second storage site in Smallbridge - however Michael is now appealing for more volunteers to help facilitate the transport of these items.
He said: “We’ve got a cracking team of volunteers but many of them are retired, or medically unable to help during the pandemic, so we really need a van and some people who are capable of lifting these heavy things.”
Enquiries about donations, volunteering or claiming any of the centre’s resources can be emailed to reuselittleborough@gmail.com.