We’re seeing just how much donated stuff can help our local charities during these difficult times. If you’re thinking of having a summer clear-out, as well as your local charity shop or the freecycle and freegle communities (and our currently rather short donations wish list for the library), here are some organisations where your unwanted things can make a big difference.
Help homeless people and refugees build a home: Oxfordshire Homeless Movement connects all the organisations in the county helping the homeless, and has a directory of places you can donate things to. On the page above, check out their facebook groups where people request what they need, often to help a homeless person set up a new home, and members reach out to their community to source them, as well as an amazon wish list of regularly requested things.
Your old laptop, tablet or phone can get someone online: help one of the estimated 40,000 people not able to access the internet in Oxfordshire: donate an old device to Getting Oxfordshire Online. This charity partnership will securely wipe it, refurbish it and pass it on to organisations supporting people who can’t afford devices.
That unloved bike can get someone riding: Broken Spoke or Asylum Welcome Bike project will both be grateful, whether to refurbish and donate the bike to someone who needs one, to repair for sale to fund their projects, or use for parts.
A box of old offcuts can inspire creativity: Orinoco Scrapstore in Templars Square have a fantastically eclectic mixture of all sorts of things and materials, with a mission to inspire creativity to save waste. Worth a visit (if nothing else, to see if they still have the mannequin in a fancy dress astronaut costume).
We’re aiming to build a better directory of these sorts of services on our website – if you’d like to suggest another, please do email Ben or add it in the comments below.