An award-winning school uniform swap shop run from听St Columba鈥檚 United Reformed Church (缅北强奸) in Wolverhampton has for the third year helped cash-strapped parents save thousands of pounds.
So successful is the free swap shop, Wolverhampton Council has teamed up with it ahead of the start of the new school term to help even more families.
The swap shop began at St Columba鈥檚 in 2019 and started with a few rails of clothing, three years later it was handling more than a tonne of clothing.
In 2021, two brothers, Daniel and Andrew Shaw then aged 15 and 13, gained a 缅北强奸 Children鈥檚 and Youth Work Lundie Memorial Award for giving up some of their school holidays to help out in the shop. Then, in 2022, the team of helpers won a 缅北强奸 Community Project Award.
With the support of the council, more locations were made available for people to drop off unwanted uniforms via Yo! Wolves events 鈥� opportunities and activities for young people in the area 鈥� throughout the holiday.
Dr Rosalind Shaw, who first started the initiative and is its co-ordinator as well as mother of the brothers, said: “Everyone is welcome and while it is great if parents can bring some uniform to donate themselves, they really don鈥檛 have to bring anything.
“We鈥檙e open to everyone and there鈥檚 a great range of uniforms available.
“Children grow out of uniform and school kit so quickly it makes complete sense to pass it on to another family, who can still get a lot of wear out of it.
“It鈥檚 great to be partnering with the council and Yo! Wolves this summer so we can reach and help even more families with what can be a huge expense for them at this time of year.”
Acting Leader of Wolverhampton Council, Councillor Stephen Simkins said: “This is a great scheme and I congratulate St Columba鈥檚 on providing such a worthwhile service.
“I鈥檓 so glad we鈥檝e been able to join up with them this summer, so we can help extend this scheme to families all over the city through our Yo! Wolves activities.
“School uniform can put a real strain on family budgets at the best of times and during the on-going cost of living crisis we know this is just another thing that families are struggling to afford and is one of the many ways as a council we鈥檙e trying to help.”
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