Free clothes project for mental health patients gets funding boost from the National Lottery
£20,000 has been secured to help more people
£20,000 has been secured from the National Lottery to boost funds for a project that provides free clothes for mental health patients in Essex.
The Community Clothes Cycle, which started in January 2024, has seen clothes donations for patients in Chelmsford.
The project has now been expanded to cover wards in Colchester and Basildon.
Charlotte Spooner and Amanda Crossley formed the Roots of Hope Community Interest Company to run the project.
The £20,000 will see them distributing clothes over the next two years.
Charlotte said: “We were working on the peer support pilot at EPUT and we noticed there was a real need for some patients who didn’t have many clothes.
“Maybe they had lost weight through grief and trauma situations in their personal life.
“Or maybe they had put on weight because of medication, or they didn’t have support from family and friends to bring them clothes, or financially they couldn’t afford it. All these different reasons.”
Staff were buying clothes out of their own money for patients in need.
Charlotte and her friends had been holding clothes swaps for fun and decided to bring in some of their preloved clothes for patients. They then started holding swaps for the general public to donate items, as well as selling clothes online to raise money to buy new ones for patients.
Amanda said: “We’ve seen the emotional impact of actually having new clothes is really amazing.
“We all know when we go to a clothes shop and we get something really nice and we go out how that benefits our own mental health.
“So to see the impact and how it’s affecting everyone else on the ward is amazing.”
The lottery funding will enable them to do even more.
Charlotte said: “We are so grateful! We have money now to pay for storage and office rent, washing powder and other equipment likes an electric clothes dryer, boxes and rails.
“This will also fund hall hire and refreshments for eight big community clothes cycle events in the community too.”