Celebrating Small Charity Week: Gateshead West Uniform Scheme

This week is Small Charity Week. To celebrate, each day we're going to feature a small charity and tell you about the amazing work that they do. Today's small but wonderful charity is...

Gateshead West Uniform Scheme 

Fighting uniform poverty

The Gateshead West Uniform Scheme was founded in 2021. It began as a group of parents and grandparents working with the local community to help fight uniform poverty and reduce the number of school uniform items unnecessarily going to landfill. They became a charity in 2023. 

Entirely volunteer led, and working out of St. Cuthbert’s church hall in Blaydon, they cover the whole of west Gateshead and surrounding areas; some families even come from Newcastle! They currently provide uniforms for 28 different schools and accept good quality donations at 8 drop-off points in the area. 

Families can either attend one of the pay-as-you-feel markets run 4 times a month or buy direct online from Vinted. They even do deliveries if there’s a particular need for this. And if people can’t find what they’re looking, there’s even a request service on their website! The aim to is to make sure everyone who needs them can access their services as easily as possible. 

As with many small charities, funding is tight. However, whenever it’s possible they provide families living in benefits with brand new items of uniform, such as blazers. 

Eleanor Baggaley, project coordinator says, “We used to just give out uniforms in the 2 or 3 months before the new school year started, but now it’s all year round. Demand is really going up.” 

As Eleanor suggests, the charity is providing vital help to people who really need it. They’re a great example of the compassion, creativity and resilience that drives many small charities in Gateshead and Newcastle. As a society, we really couldn’t do without them.