Travel mugs, notebooks and men’s clothing donated to two fantastic charities in Essex

Time for a change

Emma-Jade Hodge, Order Processor at Premier Print & Promotions (Premier P&P) in Essex, found herself with a large number of travel mugs to rehome. The mugs had been intended for an in-person event that had moved online. The travel mugs were soon joined by some unsold notebooks and clothing.

Emma-Jade was determined to identify a new home for these resources, explaining that Premier P&P had been ‘donating things like this for years ... trying to find local causes every time’.

 Typically, Premier P&P would contact charities and schools in the local area individually, to find new homes for its excess resources. However, this would often prove quite time-consuming. It was time for a change!

A seamless process

Emma-Jade was pleased to have come across A Good Thing. Specifically, Emma-Jade felt that A Good Thing made the process of reaching a wide range of local charities speedy and uncomplicated.

 Emma-Jade published a listing on the A Good Thing site for the mugs, notebooks and clothing, and it was popular immediately: Premier P&P quickly received requests from three charities. The donated items were split between these different charities, really maximising Premier P&P’s social impact.

 The charities arrived to collect their share of the donated resources from Premier P&P’s premises. Emma-Jade described this aspect of the process as seamless, with the charities being both quick to respond to communications and prompt to collect the items.

Hot drinks and clothing for rough sleepers

CHESS Homeless, based in Chelmsford, was one of the charities that benefited. Barbara Buxton, Business Support Manager at CHESS Homeless, explained that the organisation is expanding in and around Chelmsford to meet the growing need for beds:

‘We currently provide 57 beds across 11 sites, mainly in Chelmsford, to people who would otherwise be homeless. This is supported accommodation with every person coming into CHESS being allocated a support worker to help them move to independent living. This will increase to 64 beds soon.’

Barbara noted that CHESS Homeless also provides meals and hot drinks to rough sleepers when other services are not available. However, resources such as mugs and clothing, which are critical to this service, are sometimes difficult to obtain: 

‘We put out social media requests, but we don’t always get new items ... we don't often get mugs but we had a donation from a company last year and we found them to be useful.’

The team at CHESS Homeless was very glad to receive the mugs and clothing from Premier P&P via A Good Thing. Barbara explained that these resources would ‘help these rough sleepers stay warmer, and more comfortable, for longer’.

‘Brilliant’

Another of the recipient charities was the Havering Volunteer Centre (Havering VC). Havering VC creates and supports volunteering opportunities in the area, working closely with local partners and networks to do so. Shelley Hart, Havering VC’s CEO, was thankful to have received 25 notebooks from Premier P&P:

 ‘This is a massive benefit to a smaller charity such as ours, receiving donated items is a godsend and one that came in extremely handy.’

Shelley told us that the notebooks ‘helped make our organisation look professional and helped us to deliver a good training package’ to both volunteers and trustees. She explained:

 ‘A small charity such as ours has extremely limited resources, this was a delightful bonus to us and helped deliver vital training to volunteers who are now active in our community strengthening connections and supporting those in need.’

Shelley described A Good Thing as a brilliant service which was ‘simple to navigate’. Shelley also noted that the match with Premier P&P led to ‘great connections with the company’ and an enthusiasm to use their services in future if the need arose.

Supporting Essex

Emma-Jade told us that she is planning to use the platform again soon. And she told us she’s looking forward to forming connections with other local charities as a result. Here at A Good Thing, we look forward to seeing Premier P&P’s next listing and hope that it is similarly snapped up by deserving local charities!

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