In 2024, you provided clothing and helped others feel safe
Imagine you are a mum with big debts, you can’t pay your bills, and your children’s clothes are worn and full of holes. Life is scary and overwhelming.
Then you come to our Barbadoes Street Central Op Shop and City Mission staff and volunteers welcome you with big smiles. You can buy your kids good clothes for $2 and shoes for $1. The relief of being able to do something good for your children makes you want to cry.
This op shop is very important to the community because it provides people with what they need very cheaply or even for free if they have a voucher from our social workers.
“We clothe them, we give them bedding, we give them all sorts of stuff, if they need it. And even if they come off the street and need something and they don’t have a voucher, I’ll still give them what they need,” our manager says.
Our staff have big hearts and offer lots of support and compassion along with more practical help of clothes and goods that elsewhere are unaffordable.
Over at the Sydenham Op Shop, the positive impact on lives can be seen with some differences. Sydenham has the feel of being a community hub and a place where the community gathers to help families who need help.
If a family desperately needs something, we will make sure they get it, whether they have enough money or not. But sometimes other customers will offer to pay for a shopper who doesn’t have the money, or they will pay more than they should, so someone in need will pay less, a kind of unofficial pay-it-forward.
The Sydenham volunteers include doctors, nurses, lawyers and occasionally there will be brief shop floor consultations where good advice is offered in the aisles – again this is the community helping others.
One of the big unrecognised impacts of all our op shops is how much waste they save Christchurch. The recycling and repurposing of goods by the shops means less goes to landfill and our shops help combat crazy consumerism.
Our op shops are environmentally friendly and, in this way, also have a big positive impact on the community.
Across all four of our op shops, it’s the interaction between people and the way people in need are helped which is the most important outcome and many clients come to our shops because of the care and welcome they receive from staff and volunteers.
Not only are they getting some clothes and goods, but they are also being looked after. They are made to feel safe and feel there they have hope. They might come in feeling nervous about asking for help, but we work to make sure they don’t leave thinking like that.
*Names changed
*Photo caption: Sydenham Op Shopp manager Celia in the shop where the local community meets and helps each other.