About us
We provide a comprehensive range of household goods and essential items, free of charge either purchased by us or donated to us by the people of Rochdale and local boroughs, this includes items that would go to waste disposal and likely landfill. Some of which we repair and recycle and refurbish. Our volunteers include qualified PAT testers who safety check every electrical item received. We support national charity fund raising initiatives (Little “Pink” Borough, cancer awareness, the Poppy Appeal and local fund raising initiatives) we make donations to not for profit organisations (scouting movement, grass roots football, Children and toddler group, schools and the elderly in our community) we provide and recycle disability equipment aids to those in urgent need.
To date we have in excess of 8000 followers on Facebook and their support is so appreciated along with our fantastic part-time volunteers who contribute over 600 hours a week.
We receive donations of goods directly given to us; we also operate a collection service for larger Item such as furniture, brown and white goods which we can offer free of charge to needy families, identified by support workers who work in line with our distribution criteria.
To fund this we operate several retail outlets, the Reuse Littleborough Hub in Littleborough, a children’s shop called Second Time around also in Littleborough. We are operating in Rochdale town centre at our Rochdale Resource Centre supported by both these outlets and funds from our Rochdale resource retail furniture shop allows us to provide the household essentials previously mentioned. We are fortunate that we can operate with no salary cost, as all our Volunteers receive no salaries including the founder and trustees; such is the support for our activity.
We have a presentation pack which we present to local groups and schools on waste disposal and how we play our part in the reduction of items and goods that would normally go to waste sites throughout the boroughs – http://www.reuselittleborough.co.uk/education/
In June 2018 we opened our first retail outlet stocked by donations that would otherwise go to waste and sold at very competitive prices – supporting families on a budget. The proceeds go towards raising funds for our charity operation. We have provided white goods, beds and other household items to local homeless charities as they get people off our streets into accommodation. We had rails of clothes at a local soup kitchen. We then had over 5000 Facebook supports
In 2020 we opened our second charity shop focusing on parent and child up to the age of 5 years helping to support the operational costs and more importantly allowing us to make donations to needy families and provide affordable items at charity shop prices, further reducing waste.
In 2021 we opened a Resource Centre in the heart of Rochdale specifically to continue to provide essential household goods, furniture, baby requisites and toiletries to the needy of our boroughs from a dedicated location. We have been able to support in excess of an estimated 950 local new parents and needy families through care givers like Sure start, Home start, Midwives, Health Visitors Social Services and we make donations to not for profit organisations. We purchased our own collection vehicle for the collection and delivery of unwanted items that can be recycled and donated.
In 2021 we also opened our furniture store in the centre of Rochdale to support the Resource Centre activities and cost of the operation like rent, rates and Utility costs, unfortunately the lease was cut short due to emergency renovation to the building following an internal flood in March 2023.
In March 2023 we relocated our resource centre to a larger standalone storage and distribution facility that further enhanced our ability to support our mission statement.
The Future looks more demanding due to international, political, social and financial uncertainties, we hope to make a difference where we can to those less fortunate than ourselves.
Trustees
Mick Bamford and founder
