An innovative new social project has been launched in Thirsk which enables household items to be recycled and restored and given to those most in need.
Clock Works is a new social business operated by the Thirsk-based charity The Clock and this week opened its community re-use store and workshop on the Market Place.
It is designed to help people locally in desperate need of items including chairs, beds, baby equipment, electricals or other items by accepting local donations.
Central to the project is its workshop, where donations of items such as furniture and bicycles can be restored and local people can be pick up practical skills in the process.
Suzy Flintoff, enterprise and partnerships manager at The Clock, said the idea for the project was driven by local need, as the charity found it was regularly being approached by local people needing help finding affordable furniture.
She said, although similar projects exist in nearby Northallerton and York, it was often difficult for people in Thirsk to access the furniture warehouses if they lack their own transport.
“Even though these projects don’t charge much money for furniture, if you haven’t got your own transport it’s expensive and difficult to get even to Northallerton from Thirsk.
“It’s £6 on the bus, there’s just a few buses a day and you might get there and they don’t have any sofas in that day. You often need to purchase the furniture that day, before it goes. If you don’t have any money this can be a challenge.”
Suzy said they had received great support from the Richmond and Hambleton Furniture Store run by Broadacres with general advice and help in setting up the Clock Works business model.
She said: “We don’t want to replicate what anyone else is doing; even though there are other charity stores in Thirsk that sell furniture, this is a totally different business model. The idea of this store is it’s modelled around the workshop, which is central to this project.”
The workshop will use donated furniture and other items to teach people skills such as woodwork and joinery and how to restore or upcycle other items.
The end products will be sold on in the store, or people can attend open workshops and restore items they have purchased in the store.
Already a former teacher has volunteered for the project and will be running workshops on repairing and maintaining bicycles. Clock Works hopes to work with Thirsk School and local bike clubs and provide workshops for young people locally, or anyone else who wants to get involved.
It is hoped bikes donated to the project can be repaired and used in a rental scheme or given to people who need them to access work or education.
Suzy said the workshop should bring with it a number of benefits for the community.
“The social aspects of this project involve developing skills in people and increasing the opportunity for people to get involved in something productive. This is something a little bit practical, doing something really positive and creating something.
“That can have a great impact on mental health and also provides skills which people can use on their CV. Or it could spark an interest in someone who might want to pursue it educationally.”
In the future Clock Works hopes to open up a pop-up school uniform store for local primary and secondary schools in the area, providing branded and unbranded items of uniform, which it hopes to do alongside any existing school uniform recycling projects in local schools.
The project is now in need of volunteers, from people to run workshops, to drivers who can collect furniture and people to work in the furniture store, which is situated behind the White Horse Café.
They are also in need of good quality donations.
Anyone who has items they think would be suitable for donation can ring the donations hotline on; 07598 187846.
For more details visit the Clock Works Community Re-Use Store and Workshop page on Facebook.
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