A charity organisation is once again running their coat exchange initiative to try to remove the stigma from struggling families that find themselves in often unseen poverty.
The Leith Collective, who are based at Ocean Terminal, Fort Kinnaird and the St Enoch Centre in Glasgow, will be running a coat exchange service at their aforementioned sites. The scheme kicked off three years ago and each year it has grown in popularity.
Last year the exchange supplied over 500 coats to families and individuals who found they were without a coat or had outgrown their previous clothing. But this year, with the cost of living crisis destroying household incomes, the Collective believe they may end up ticking over the 700 mark.
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CEO Sara Thomson, 41, says that those wishing to use the service just need to pop down to one of their locations where they will be able to discreetly help themselves to a coat from a rack. She adds that anyone with coats that are too small or too big can also be brought and exchanged for a size that would fit.
If anyone wishes to donate, then they can also pop into any of the above locations and drop the items off.
In the third year of running the project, Sara said: “This is the third year we have had it running. It started off really small and all came from an idea when I thought about how my two kids only wear their coats for about half the year.
“They are always in perfectly good condition and with the prices of coats going up and up I thought it would be good to see if anyone needed them. I then asked if there were others in the same boat.
“A few of us brought stuff into the Leith Collective shop in Ocean Terminal and we also began asking customers if they could also do the same. We stuck them all up on a rack with a sign saying that they were free to take or exchange.
“In the first year they were all taken and none were left over. But in the second year things began to go a bit crazy.
“We ended up having 500 coats taken and the scheme ran from October right through to march. You could not keep them on the rack for long.
“However, this year we were already building up a waiting list for local families and we also began receiving referrals from charities. We expect the number to be over 700 coats this time.”
The mum-of-two said that a reason behind starting the project was to remove the stigma from often working families who found they were struggling to afford winter coats curing the cost of living crisis. She added that there is an increasing level of unseen poverty that many are not aware of.
On this, she continued: “Coats are sadly becoming luxury items and many are going without due to the rising costs. I think there is a lot of unseen poverty, families who are in-work but are over the threshold for being referred to organisations such as food banks. If you have several growing children then it can mean buying a new coat out of one month’s pay and many cannot afford that even when working full time.
“We want to remove the stigma and hopefully make sure that people do not feel embarrassed. We have created the system in such a way that you do not have to speak to anyone, you can just grab a coat from the rail.
“At some food banks you are prescribed tokens and have to hand it in which can make people feel a sense of shame when they are not feeling good anyways. The coat exchange is not a charity and is just a community project where we help one another.
“We will always carry out this service if people require it but it is unfortunate that it is needed in society.”
The Leith Collective have several retail spaces that support hundreds of artists and local businesses who have an interest in working sustainably. As well as this, they often work together to support local communities and to grow as well as share expertise.
You can visit their website here.
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