Find out how and why we’re supporting Oxfam’s Second Hand September for Dunoon. Learn how you too can get involved through our activities and events.
How do you get rid of household items you don’t want any more? Do you pass them on to friends and family? Sell them on Weebay? Take items to the tip or donate them to a local charity shop?
It’s not always easy to figure out how to get rid of things you don’t need or want anymore. It can depend on the condition of the item and how much time you have to sort things out to donate. Maybe you take things to the tip. Or perhaps they’re piling up in your hallway waiting for a new home.
This September, we will celebrate reuse and repair in and around Dunoon. Second Hand September is an annual event pioneered by Oxfam that draws attention to the good that reusing items brings to our communities.
We’re teaming up with Oxfam, the Social Enterprise Academy, POP shop enterprises and Third Sector Interface to run a series of events in Dunoon, culminating in a Second Hand September Fashion Show at the Queen’s Hall.
Dunoon’s Reuse Community
Dunoon has seven charity shops and a network of businesses and community-based organisations that accept and redistribute unused items at no or low cost.
These local shops and businesses contribute to our community in several key ways:
Many employ local people.
Some offer opportunities to volunteer, helping local people to gain new skills, share their expertise or keep connected in their community.
Money raised through the re-sale of donated items supports causes as diverse as the local radio station and the hospice and international aid.
We can find local and affordable alternatives to new items.
They give us all a way to reduce our impact on the environment by repurposing and rehoming unused items.
Are charity shops a friend or foe of the high street?
Some may view charity shops as a sign that the high street isn’t thriving. But those working or volunteering in and using the secondhand shops, as well as repair and recycling opportunities, around town would disagree!
In a town that is committed to reducing its impact on the environment, minimising our waste by considering how we buy new and redistribute old items is vital.
Whether mending our favourite coat, finding a new outfit for the weekend or adding a secondhand rake to your garden tool shed, the practice of repairing and reusing goods is becoming more mainstream. Charity shopping and buying secondhand is increasing in popularity. This sustainable movement is also reflected in national policy with communities receiving more support to develop their circular economy.
“Charity shops are the oldest social enterprises in the book,” says Hannah Clinch of POP shop enterprises CIC.
“They give people a choice to support a cause that can have local benefits while also diverting waste from landfill here in Dunoon”
But what impact do these charity shops have on the people who work and volunteer for them? Are there opportunities for organisations, including Dunoon Community Development Trust, to establish new enterprises based on the principles of repair and reuse?
Second Hand September is an opportunity for the reuse community and local people in Dunoon to explore and discuss all of this. Come and join us, find out what’s on.
Secondhand fashion under the spotlight
A series of activities and talks for Second Hand September will culminate in a community-led fashion show at the Queen’s Hall,
“The fashion show will feature the work of 20 teams of local people, including young people, who will receive £20 each to spend in charity shops to create an original look for the show,”
says Lennie Pearson who manages Dunoon’s Oxfam shop on Hillfoot Street.
“Oxfam is delighted to work with our partners to draw attention to the hard work of our volunteers, who keep the shops running, and to the many benefits and challenges faced by the community reuse sector.”
Alongside the fashion show, activities and talks will explore how the circular economy could grow in and around Dunoon. There will be an online talk featuring reuse pioneers, an in-person event where people will learn more about how the local tip works and a mend-and-make-do session.
The programme is designed to feed into the Local Place Plan for Dunoon and support the generation of ideas that could be turned into new social enterprises.
About Second Hand September in Dunoon
Second Hand September Dunoon is a partnership project led by Dunoon Community Development Trust. It is designed to spark ideas and inform the development of a Local Place Plan for Dunoon. Our lead partners are Oxfam, Third Sector Interface, POP shop enterprises CIC and the Social Enterprise Academy.
This work is funded by the Scottish Government's Investing in Communities Fund, Argyll and Bute Council’s Supporting Communities Fund, Argyll and Bute Climate Action Network and the National Lottery Community Fund.
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