A former nurse whose charity caught the eye of Paolo Nutini has told of how she first started by piling clothes into her spare room.
Alison Hastings, from Elderslie, was working in healthcare and noticed a desperate need for an organisation to redistribute clothes to families in need.
Clothed in Love then began in her spare bedroom where she gathered donations and handed them out. She stockpiled donations until her room was overrun.
“I spoke to a couple of health visitors; they were saying they didn’t have space for clothes. So, I started collecting them in the corner of my spare room, and then the bags got so much they began to meet me at the door.”
The Paisley project now runs with six volunteers, including Alison’s daughter Sara, and says that reducing the stigma of redistributing second-hand clothes is the aim they built the charity on and follow to this day.
And after receiving cash donations, including from singer Paolo Nutini, who gave £10,000 after his concert in Edinburgh last year, the project has been able to fulfil more than 500 referrals.
The age range they serve has been able to expand from five to seven to now catering for all children of primary school age.
Alison says in the beginning she got great support from the church, and they helped her get initial funding.
This was able to provide a storage facility they could use to store, catalogue, and redistribute the clothes.
Alison said: “Once I got known it just escalated from there – health visitors would come in and say 'this is a really good thing'.”
The network grew as members of the adjoining church and other healthcare workers became aware of the project.
Clothed in Love now works collaboratively with a variety of helpers including health visitors, midwives, nurseries, and referral organisations. They also aid refugees in the area, having recently gifted clothes to a Ukrainian family after a plea was made from the church.
The charity uses these channels to find those in need however people can still contact them directly, with Alison and her fellow volunteers selflessly dropping off items to homes on the occasion where families can’t make it to them.
She said: “It's very much dedication and a lot of commitment because you've got to balance your home life as well.”
Now, the volunteers say their dream is for more storage space to expand their reach and consistent funding so they can focus on what's important.
In the last six months they have received funding from Renfrewshire Council, Beat the Street Renfrewshire, professional singer Kirsty Duncan and ROCCA Awards Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce.
We previously reported that the group also received support from Renfrewshire's Provost Lorraine Cameron who chose Clothed in Love as one of her chosen charities to support during her term.
Alison says previously they were going month to month with donations, but now she says they have some security to run for the next while.
She said: “We looked into a few different storage places, but they’re all so expensive.
“So far, funding has just come along right on time but having the money for a storage unit permanently would give us the security to start buying clothes or toys and accessories and allow us to do more.
“It’s our dream to have our own place and at a minimum cost so we don't have to have that pressure of applying for funding all the time.”
The group are welcoming fundraising events that are taking place over the summer, including support from a women's group Woman2Woman within the church.
Their focus now remains on building their network and continuing the donations they so vitally fulfil.
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