Sharewear is a charity committed to reducing clothing poverty. Our campaign #noWeartorun provides suitable active wear for people experiencing clothing poverty.
This year we have started our campaign to focus the spotlight on the close links between clothing poverty and poor mental health, as each is both a cause and effect of the other. Our #noWeartorun campaign has captured the imagination and support of all those who believe that no-one in the UK should be denied access to basic free-of-charge exercise to improve their mental health simply due to lack of basic appropriate clothing. We are delighted to say that we are able to support Move More Sheffield across their multiple projects, like Beat The Street, to enable people in Sheffield to be active, by providing them with appropriate clothing.
Sharewear Clothing Scheme began as an ‘experiment’ back in 2014 in Nottingham after our Founder’s son had seen the desperate need for free clothing provision in his weekly volunteering session at a foodbank. The idea was to provide free clothing of all types, for people aged ‘newborn to ninety’ in an organised and dignified way using a referral system.
Fast forward seven years, and the tiny team of four volunteers in a room at the back of a church has grown to a team of over forty volunteers and three employees across three referral centres. The first of these outside of Nottinghamshire opened right here in Sheffield in January 2021, after the Nottingham based team had spent 2020 making bulk clothing deliveries to core charities in the city like Ashiana , Framework Street Outreach Team, Ben’s Centre and Baby Basics.
Following a successful crowdfunder and funding from the People’s Postcode Trust, our Sheffield centre is located on Norfolk Street and can now easily serve public, charity and voluntary sector organisations with clothing referrals for their service users, clients and patients. The referred person accesses their own clothing from Sharewear’s rails, having the same dignity of choice that we all take for granted when we go shopping for clothes, and they also choose which clothing they need for their children.
Clothing poverty remains the undisclosed and undocumented aspect of deprivation and economic insecurity for the 14 million people living in poverty in the UK today. Lack of affordability of appropriate clothing keeps people from getting a job, from attending school, from being safe and warm, from simply functioning for everything we need clothes for in life – in short, it prevents them from actually living and functioning in society. Our donated preloved clothing comes from the general public, schools and universities, churches and groups of colleagues in companies, and groups like the Soroptomists and the Rotary Clubs.
Our quality rule is that if we wouldn’t wear it ourselves or want to see a member of our family in the clothing, then it doesn’t make our rails. Absolutely everything in our centre is free, and you will find Paul Smith next to Primark and Gucci next to George. We also have partnerships with retailers like Bamboo Clothing Ltd and Lyfcycle who supply us with their pre-consumer waste and/or enable their customers around the UK to donate clothes to us. The generosity of our clothes donors has enabled us to support over 30,000 people since our inception, 3000 of those being supported form our Sheffield centre in the first three months of this year alone!
How can you help?
· Donate good quality second-hand active wear
· Refer anyone who experiences clothing poverty to us
· Support our #noWeartorun campaign on social media
Follow us at:
Facebook @SharewearSheffield
Instagram: @sharewearclothingscheme
Twitter: @SharewearUK
Contact us at: sheffield@sharewearclothingscheme.org