New van takes clothes on the road

THREAD Together has hit the road in Geelong, with the mobile van bringing choice, dignity and new clothing to people across the region.

Funded by the Geelong Community Foundation, the van is a mobile wardrobe, complete with a changing room and appropriate clothing for people doing it tough.

The organisation has vans across the nation, with the addition of the Geelong vehicle heavily driven by data.

Thread Together chief executive officer Anthony Chesler said data suggested there were many people in Geelong experiencing homelessness that were not supported by an agency.

“To be able to take clothing into some of these locations provides us the opportunity to support this growing need of people that are experiencing homelessness,” he said.

“While there’s a lot of support services going in to provide food relief and other services, there’s no one providing new clothing to people that are experiencing disadvantage.”

Thread Together partners with retailers and manufacturers in the Australian fashion industry to redirect unsold clothing to people who need it most.

Focused on supporting people in need, the van is also available for men and women being integrated back into the community from incarceration or supporting women and children escaping family and domestic violence.

 

Any charity partner within the City of Greater Geelong can request the Thread Together van to visit, with people needing assistance encouraged to reach out to one of the local service providers.

Mr Chesler said Thread Together is working on putting a schedule in place for Geelong where it will visit locations at least once every three to four weeks, ensuring it can service those who need it.

“It’s always merchandised with clothing that’s appropriate for people, their circumstances and the people that we’re providing the clothing (to),” he said.

“We always talk about clothing being our second skin and it’s serving more than just protecting us from the elements and it’s often a forgotten basic human right.

“What we’re trying to do is just empower people by giving them access to new clothing that would otherwise go to a landfill and to give them the help to restore their dignity.”

Having the van available means services do not have to collect clothing, sort it or store it, and also allows caseworkers to build connections with their clients.

For more information, head to threadtogether.org