How to physically donate items e.g. new toilettries to a women's refuge

[SWnewstart]

I have some items (new unwanted gifts, BOGOF items etc) that I'd like to donate to a women's refuge, along with new things for children, but have no idea how to go about this. Obviously addresses can't be given out but searching online for my area comes up with nothing at all, just the name of a "project" and that may not even be current. I really want to donate to a women's cause as apposed to charity shop but no idea how to find a way of doing this. Any advice please?

Caroline Hirons does give and make up, you post to a P.O. Box (paying your own postage) and it goes to women’s refuges.

Google your local domestic abuse support service. They'll most likely be in charge of the refuges and will be able to arrange to take the items if they're accepting donations.

Which county are you in? There will be some kind of DV provision locally.

Thank you both. I'd like things to go to somewhere local if possible (south Somerset). Will try to find out about DV provision for this area and hopefully be able to find somewhere to accept donations.

Search for women's aid / refuge and your area, and there should be an email or tel (there won't be a location for obvious reasons). If you contact them, they generally tell you a neutral place they use for accepting donations (our county has an agreement with an office building, for example). They rarely have much storage so may need to specify what kind of goods they can accept

Is this local to you OP?

somersetsurvivors.org.uk/

Food banks also donate toiletries.

I've used that link to send email, thank you CleanQueen123.
The "neutral space" is what I had in mind MutteringDarkly. I'll keep researching. Thank you.

Our local authority has dispersed refuge accommodation (as do many others) so you just go to the charity's office and drop it there, the address is well publicised.

I used to work for the company that provide the Somerset services, but in a different county. We either collected the items ourselves or partnered with other charities who would collect/accept donations on our behalf at their public facing locations and deliver to us.

All of our locations, including head office, were PO box only so they couldn't be found.

My local WA takes donations of new goods by appointment at the main office for women's aid, they have a resource centre attached which runs courses pre-covid. The office details are easily available, like a pp said. They will tell you what they can accept or not.

CleanQueen123 - I totally understand the confidentiality issues. Would you know of any charity shops that accept donations specifically for women's refuges? What I mean is, British Heart Foundation is obviously for that purpose, Cancer Research, St Margaret's Hospice likewise etc. I am happy to post to a PO Box if only I can find somewhere!

NotanotherboxofFrogs - sorry but I'm obviously not searching in the right places as I can't find any WA details for local resource centres or office details for south Somerset. What am I doing wrong?

Do you have a Hygiene Bank near you ?

I've never heard of one but that's not to say they don't exist. Hopefully you'll get a reply back and they tell you where you can donate.

We tried our best to accept donations. Toiletries were fairly easy because they were in high demand and didn't take up a huge amount of space. We used them in refuge and to make up care packages for women/families we were supporting in the community so we got through them quickly.

CleanQueen123 that's exactly what I had in mind for the donation. So how did you get these items in the first place? I guess you worked at a central admin point or something and then passed on. Hopefully I will be able to take / post to somewhere similar . Appreciate the good job you and others do.

JSL52 - I'd never heard of Hygiene Banks, looking for a local one now. Have emailed an organiser. Good idea. Was hoping to donate specifically to Women's Aid but happy to do this.

Do you have a local The Hygiene Bank, they sometimes support refuges?

Usually donations via other groups such as our local Food Bank or church groups.

We had one lovely lady who used to arrive with a whole car boot full at Christmas. She ran a local women's social group and they made a point of supporting us.

Supermarkets were another one. We had great relationships with the community champions so they'd have collection boxes for us and then we'd go and get them.

We also kept an eye on our local Facebook groups. People quite often posted wanting to give donations so we would collect from them.

Refuge work is very much about who you know.

Donations are always tricky due to lack of storage space. Clothing was the hardest thing for us. If you weren't supporting a woman who was the right size for the donations you could end up storing them for quite some time.

However, we were always immensely grateful that people thought of us. If we couldn't make use of something we would try our best to find someone who could.

I was going to suggest asking your local Facebook group. There's often someone there who knows someone and can pass donations on.