When Ally Elouise attended her school prom 12 years ago it was a night to remember. She had got the dress she wanted and had a "great time" with her friends celebrating the end of their high school journey. Then just 15 years old she didn't think much about the reasons some children in her year didn't come to the pivotal event.
"I thought they just didn't want to," said the 27-year-old. "But obviously as I got older and became an adult I looked back on it and I realised that the people that didn't go to the prom were probably from a family that was struggling financially."
This sad realisation only occurred to Ally, who is from Llandudno, several years later while she was studying law at Liverpool John Moores University. It was around this time that she watched a documentary with her dad about poverty in Britain, which highlighted the financial barriers some children face when attending prom. "One of the clips on it was a mum taking her daughter to charity shops to look for a prom dress. They only had two choices, basically, and she didn't really like them. All her friends were shopping online at prom shops, so she wasn't looking forward to it. I don't remember the rest of the programme but that scene really stood out."
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The limited number and choice of preloved prom dresses is something Ally herself had noticed whenever she browsed charity and second-hand stops in Liverpool during study breaks. She began to research the problem for herself, keen to find out if there was anything out there to help children who could not afford promwear.
"It turns out there's so many people that don't go to these events because of the financial barriers. It just really upset me because we all had a great time our prom. Some people leave school, some carry on to sixth form. It's the last time you'll see everyone collectively and your teachers."
She wondered about the prospect of a "foodbank but for formalwear" and so the idea for her social enterprise Prom Ally was born. Today, seven years on, her company – which is a CIC meaning it exists to benefit the community rather than shareholders – loans out promwear for free to girls and boys across the UK who cannot afford to buy their own. Earlier this month she won the social enterprise startup of the year award in the Wales Start-Up Awards 2022, held in Depot in Cardiff.
Children need to be referred via a form on the Prom Ally website by their school, a local authority, a foodbank, or a charity in order to use the service. All families have to pay is £10 to cover the postage costs there and back but Prom Ally will cover that too if need be.
Ally used her 21st birthday money to initially set up the venture from her university accommodation. Armed with one mannequin and about 15 to 20 prom dresses which she bought from charity shops across Liverpool she took photos of the clothes and contacted her old school. "I was just helping a few kids from my local school back in Llandudno at the time. I didn't actually think it was going to get as big as it got."
After graduating Ally moved back to Llandudno and, instead of returning to law, carried on Prom Ally while working as teaching assistant at a local primary school. For the first few years she only helped a "couple of people" but the enterprise really started to take off as the word spread on social media.
"I did a lot of promotion on Facebook and social media and actually really quickly – I think because it was such a niche idea – we managed to get a few newspaper articles. Really quickly people starting asking if they could donate their old prom dress. So since that first purchase of 15 dresses I've never actually bought anymore because they're all donated in now."
Now Prom Ally has 4,000 donated prom outfits held in a storage unit in Colwyn Bay. The growth of the project meant she could turn Prom Ally into her full-time job in 2020, secure it CIC status, and open a little shop on the high street in Llandudno. "[The shop sells] some of the older stock and stuff that we've had for years, but has never really been chosen, just to try and make some money," she said. "It's open to anyone. We sell affordable formalwear – £30 and under."
The pandemic saw proms cancelled for two years but Ally kept the enterprise ticking over with a click and collect service during the lockdowns. This year has seen the return of the event and a boom in referrals to Prom Ally – 419 to be exact, a large percentage of those from north Wales.
For Ally it's clear the cost of living crisis is a reason for the increase as well as the universal credit cut. "A lot of the families we helped were on universal credit," she said. "I think a lot of these families will probably go into debt to try and buy the dress that their daughter wants. There are other things that are so much more important that they could be buying like food and putting the heat on."
Running Prom Ally on her own – save for two Duke of Edinburgh volunteers on a Saturday afternoon – has been challenging but entirely worth it, said the entrepreneur. "Sometimes there's a parent that will say that they were feeling really like down and that they'd let their children down. So to know that you've helped that and helped to change that is a really nice feeling," she said. "Stuff like that just really makes me realise why I do it and why I've put so much time into it over these years."
She continued: "It's just a shame for someone to miss out. The teenagers themselves – it's not their fault what situation they've been born into and they're already probably going through quite a lot just being a teenager like puberty and bullying and stuff. And especially now with social media I think it's going to be harder for people who don't manage to have the same things as their friends and peers."
A report by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) from March this year found that many children and young people could not take part in special occasions such as dress-up days and non-uniform days because of associated costs causing them to feel embarrassed and left out. Meanwhile teachers reported pupils missing school on these days to avoid the social pressures. Kate Anstey, UK cost of the school day lead at CPAG, said such activities were actually a "source of anxiety" for children who could not afford them.
Finances aside Ally also believes second-hand shopping is the way forward. "I think it's really important that we encourage that because there is enough clothing in the world to never have to make more." Prom Ally's PO box is currently closed for donations as Ally concentrates on the currently referrals but keep an eye on the website to find out when it reopens at the end of July.
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