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Changing Lives Together (CLT) run a number of different projects across Cheshire West aiming to reduce waste, improve quality of life of those in crisis and reduce social isolation.

The organisation run a number of different projects including a recycling project based at its Winsford hub, a Food Hub, a Community Shop, a Buddying and Befriending Scheme, a school-based Family Support Project and a community transport and community car scheme to name just a few. Changing Lives Together is a one stop shop for people across Cheshire, supporting many thousands of people each year.

Following its merger Changing Lives Together continued to serve its community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic accelerated the rate of expansion for its operations as it launched new projects and increased the scale of its original projects to respond to the changing situation.

Its Bulky Waste recycling scheme saw its highest demand during the pandemic regularly collecting over 50 tonnes per month. Likewise, the Help schemes saw their highest ever rates supporting over 300 families per month.

The organisations other services such as its Buddying and Befriending project moved to being on the phone rather than face to face but helped to deal with the increased cases of isolation seen.

Changing Lives Together also opened its Cheshire Food Hub project to tackle food poverty. The Food Hub supported 10 large food groups throughout the pandemic and so far has supplied surplus food to feed over 14,000 children during school holidays. Due to the large amount of success the Food Hub has seen it has already become part of the organisation’s mainstream operations.

Changing Lives Together continued to operate at full capacity which meant it was able to continue to support its community at a time when they needed it most. As well as this, it earned them the reputation as an organisation that people could trust with whatever situation arose, even with the new challenges COVID had presented.

The importance of the organisation’s work was demonstrated during the Cheshire floods in January 2021 when it was called in to the emergency committee meetings with local authorities due to its ability to react fast on the ground.

Kennet Furniture Refurbiz is a charity based on a small industrial estate in Devizes, Wiltshire. Its mission is to save usable furniture from entering landfill, refurbish white goods to make them useful once more and train volunteers in the process. The charity work alongside 40 other organisations and departments of the council to alleviate furniture poverty in and around Wiltshire.

This year, the charity supplied over £36k worth of free white goods and furniture to those facing crisis with no other means of purchasing goods. As well as this, the charity estimates that it has collected, checked, refurbished and rehomed over 200 tonnes of useable furniture and white goods. Despite distruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennet Furntiure Refurbiz have supported 3 of its volunteers into finding full time employment.

The organisation has continued to grow despite disruption caused by the COIVD-19 pandemic, and over the past year have doubled its floor space to 10,000 sq ft which has not only provided more room to display its second-hand items, but has also allowed the organisation to increase the number of units it is refurbishing by 40% a month. With this growth, Kennet Furniture Refurbiz have been able to help more people in need, get to those in crisis and respond quicker than ever before.

Refurbs Flintshire’s aims are to provide affordable furniture, to provide work placement, training and volunteering opportunities, to make people aware of the benefits of reusing and recycling, to reduce pollution and protect the environment, and to promote sustainable waste management practice.

In the last year, Refurbs Flintshire have developed new business activities with the aims of benefitting more people in the communities it serves, and have diversified its revenue streams so the charity can make even more of a difference. In January 2021 the organisation secured Welsh Government Circular Economy funding to develop a vacant bank building in Buckley town centre into a Repair and Reuse Centre.

In just 3 months, the charity completely transformed the building, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19. The new facility features a new cafe, workshop space, display space for upcycled items and upcycling materials for sale. The centre is open to the public 6 days a week serving locally-made food as well as having a variety of reuse & repair workshops running, the most recent being a Recycling Week event that taught attendees how to create purses out of recycled sofa leather.

The centre has expanded the charity’s work to a new geographical area which means it can now reach and benefit more people, as well as having increased its capacity to repair and reuse more waste items.

Rummage Rescuers CIC was founded in 2015 and is a community based ‘not for profit’ organisation aimed at alleviating poverty locally via collaborative working partnerships. Rummage Rescuers is Managed by dedicated officers/ volunteers and based over 6 shops/warehouses.

The only organisation of its kind in the Bradford with Darwen area, Rummage Rescuers supports people in its local community overcome marginalisation with a personal infrastructure that meets their needs. One of its many schemes include the Pound Pending scheme which uses funds donated to the organisations to enable families or individuals in great need to access ‘free of charge’ items of their choice. To overcome the stigmatisation of people living in poverty the individuals are given full control to choose their much needed items.

As well as this, the organisation also support people who want to volunteer to gain meaningful work experience to enable them to fulfill their full potential with many of its volunteers going forward into paid employment. On average a total of 158 hours of volunteering is completed each week to a value of £73K per year.

In the last 12 months, Rummage Rescuers have supported over 2,500 customers with the provision of recycled goods saved from landfill. To support growing referral demands, the organisation opened another warehouse specifically for those in poverty/crisis. Recycled clothing, school uniforms, toiletries, recycled baby items and more was given away for free to support its community.

Rummage Rescuers also supported with public/private sector referrals, providing 725 people with items they needed at as cost of £27,821.