Wesley Community Furniture

Mission Statement

"To work in partnership with others to provide furniture and other household items at the lowest possible prices to those in greatest need in Manchester, to further relieve poverty by providing jobs, volunteering and training opportunities, and to recycle and re-use as much of the material we receive as possible."

What we do

The primary charitable object of Wesley Community Furniture is to provide household goods to people in need. To that end, the Wesley provides the transport and labour to collect donations from people throughout Greater Manchester — and sometimes further away — and these donations are brought to the shop unit where they are sorted, assessed for condition, repaired where possible, renovated when feasible, and displayed for sale.

Clients either come off the street or are referred by agencies, and are helped to choose from stock purchases which can then be delivered to their homes. The collection and delivery is free of charge.

Clients who are referred to us by agencies (such as social services, dept of Employment, housing associations etc.) are offered our joblot/homestart package which consists of the basics people need for independent living for less than it would cost if the items were bought individually.

Other objectives

The second charitable object is concerned with the provision of jobs, volunteering and training opportunities. To this end, takings from the shop cover the paid staff costs, volunteer expenses, building and vehicle costs. Money is also used to pay for training, such as driving lessons, electrical PAT testing, Health & Safety, First Aid etc. are encouraged and readily taken up.

The Wesley’s volunteers are its most valuable assets: the majority of the work is only possible because of their work and commitment to the project and its objects and ethos.

A third major aim of the project is to make an impact on landfill use: by reusing peoples’ unwanted household items we redirect in excess of 165 tonnes of material every year. Furthermore, in its operation WCF endeavours to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

History

The project has been in existence since 1993, when a group of concerned volunteers in Hulme (an area of inner city Manchester that had suffered years of unprecedented decline) who were determined to do something about some of the many local needs, set up an independent organisation in a spare room at the Wesley Church Hall on Royce road, Hulme. The idea had been sparked by the Methodist-run Open Door café and advice centre in Moss Side, which had run a clothes bank. This had started getting donations of furniture which soon overwhelmed its already over-used shop unit, and a separate, independent furniture project was born.

It quickly snowballed to an independent organisation with its own management committee, staff, volunteers, vans, and the rent-free use of most of the Wesley Church complex of buildings, which was transformed into a furniture shop, store, office and community café.

The Wesley, as it became affectionately known, set up its referral process so that those in most need could receive a ‘homestarter' package. The project was also able to train some of its volunteers or assist them into study; volunteers gained driving licences, CITB qualifications in electrical fitting, CORGI registration in gas fitting, and various NVQs, from catering to furniture restoration and childcare. The project ran a food co-op, Credit Union collection, recycling points: from one seed many more ideas and projects grew.

WCF won a number of awards for its innovative work, including Barclay's Community Development Foundation Award in 1995, and the British Urban Regeneration Association Award in 1996.

By 1997 the regeneration process of demolition and new-build in Hulme was in full swing, and the project had to find new premises. A temporary home was found at the PSV Russell Club (formerly The Factory - the precursor to Factory Records and the Hacienda club), just along Royce Road, and the project continued under a new manager.

Over the Christmas and New Year period of 2001 the Wesley moved to 56-58 Lloyd Street South, Fallowfield (near to Manchester City's old Maine Road ground), which was a major upheaval in more ways than one: relocation incurred considerable costs, the project closed to the public for three weeks and then had to generate business anew; client numbers took several months to reach anything like previous levels.

Throughout 2001, work on developing WCF progressed: the re-invigorated management committee helped steer the project back to health and on 28th September it was granted charitable status.

By the start of 2002 the project was very busy again: clients and donations were going through the ceiling - to the extent that the problem now was that project capacity was struggling to accommodate the demand from the community.

Subsequent years have seen the development of a Capacity Building Programme aimed at increasing staff [paid & unpaid] numbers, the vehicle fleet, and building space.

2004 saw the start of 3 years CRED/lottery funding (which gave us 3 staff), we built up vehicle & volunteer numbers, and in 2006 we also worked a NRF/ERDF-funded programme which gives us 4 more staff, a truck, and warehouse rent for 10 months - largely to facilitate our kerbside Reuse Collections pilot, which was in partnership with Manchester City Council & other voluntary sector reuse/recycling projects.

In 2007 we began a 3-year Reaching Communities programme (Big Lottery) which focused on working with volunteers. Our team grew to 30, our van fleet to 5 vehicles, and by May 2008 we had ditched our relatively unproductive and expensive warehouse space and opened our second sizeable shop/workshop building at St Wilfrid’s Hall. This marked not only a return to financial stability (by reducing costs and increasing sales), but a return to our ‘birthplace’ in Hulme.

You can download our Annual Reports here (pdf format)-

Wesley Annual Report 2005

Wesley Annual Report 2006

Wesley Annual Report 2007