New project to redistribute school uniforms in west Leeds

We recently spoke with Cllr Hannah Bithell, a Councillor for the Kirkstall ward in Leeds, about a new school uniform reuse project that she is helping to set up.

The project is focusing on the "inner-west" area of Leeds - Bramley, Stanningley, Kirkstall and Armley. We spoke with Hannah on Facebook to find out more:

The project will be launching in mid July - and here's how it will work.

A number of schools in Bramley, Stanningley, Kirkstall and Armley have agreed to be part of the scheme - and parents at participating schools will be contacted soon with information about how to donate any surplus school uniform that they've got.

Clearly this is a little bit more complicated than normal, because of the COVID-19 situation, but there'll be options for people to donate safely - with donations then being stored for 72 hours before being sorted by volunteers.

Families will then be able to request uniform via the project's website - with uniform then either being delivered (including by the brilliant Bramley Breezers Bramazon service!) or available for collection from community organisations such as Kirkstall Valley Development Trust.

More information on all of this will be available in the coming weeks.

We love the sound of all of this - particularly the involvement of local schools, and key community organisations. It's great too to tap into the desire that local people have to do something practical where they live.

We're also hopeful that this could provide a model for other people to learn from in other parts of the city - our aim is to encourage projects to set up all over Leeds - some run by schools, some by parents, and some by people and organisations in the local community.

We'll share more information as soon as we have it - but in the meantime please join our Facebook group - and if you have any questions - please just ask on there.

Let's make second hand uniform the first choice in Leeds!