A free boutique in an unused office space at Change Grow Live Nottinghamshire is transforming the lives of those who shop there – and volunteer there.
A new outfit can mean many things. It can mean that someone attending a job interview feels smart and confident. Someone who is sleeping rough can keep warm and dry. Someone struggling with drug use can blend in as they walk down the street.
A group of service users and volunteers at our Worksop hub were all too aware of this. With a range of lived experience between them, they understood what it was like to have very little, and how this can draw judgement from others. The group meets regularly as PLENNTI: the People’s Lived Experience Network Nottinghamshire to Inspire. The inspiration, in this case, was a ‘rummage box’ in the hub, filled with donated clothes.
Realising that an unused, glass-walled office space presented the perfect ‘shop window’, a member of the group brought in a rail to display the clothes – and The Boutique began to take shape.
‘The whole idea was to give people things that were free – but with dignity.’ – Lynne Jaap, Service User Involvement Lead, Nottingham
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This blog was published by Change Grow Live