Public Service links - Southampton Scrapstore services support, complement and link to a range of social, educational, economic and environmental policies adopted by Southampton City Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Test valley Borough Council, New Forest District Council, Hampshire County Council, Primary Care Trusts and others.

Our store is located at Eastpoint Centre, which is in a New Deal, socially disadvantaged area of Southampton. It was previously a large secondary school and is now used as an essential community facility by many local groups. The Centre values our local presence and use of their facilities not only as a paying tenant but also because of our significant contribution to their key community social aims and values.

Southampton Scrap Store is a registered charity initially established 22 years ago by Southampton City Council but now run entirely by volunteers from the local community. An Aladdin’s Cave of arts and crafts materials, much of which are supplied freely by local businesses, meets the eye on entering our Store at Eastpoint. Member groups and individuals pay a means related fee to collect and use these materials. The Scrap Store is one of a network around the UK, our nearest neighbours being at Portsmouth and Dorchester.

The Store is managed by a part-time salaried Coordinator (John Marsh) assisted by volunteers. Our volunteers who either work as assistants in the Store, help with delivering workshop activities or serve on the management committee, comprise – public spirited citizens who have a few hours spare each week to join the Scrapstore team, people who are retired and enjoy helping out in a friendly working environment, disabled people with learning difficulties, vulnerable young people gaining workplace and social skills and people who have been out of work for longer than 6 months under the Government’s New Deal Scheme (i.e. ILM). Those helping run the Store are able to learn skills ranging from van driving, retail sales, stock management, book keeping, membership database management, collection and delivery of materials, IT skills and much more!

Over 350 local groups and individuals, mainly from Southampton, use the Store’s services and we estimate that these groups in turn serve some 16 700 children and adults in the area. Many of our member groups themselves serve excluded groups and deprived communities, including voluntary, un-funded organisations and self help groups who rely on the free materials for many of their activities. Our membership comprises parents, families, individuals, artists, crèches, playgroups, after-school clubs, junior clubs, activity clubs, play schemes, uniformed groups, youth clubs and centres, correctional centres and behaviour management groups, theatre groups, schools, art colleges, residential centres, day centres, hospital departments, therapy groups, special schools, disabled peoples’ groups, people who have been abused, women’s refuge, homeless support groups, drug rehabilitation centre, travellers, lone parent groups, family centres, Surestart projects, parent and toddler groups, gym tots, play-schemes, home educators, care associations, child carers, people living in residential care and over 50’s clubs.

We continually look for savings in running costs and the Store is run on a very tight budget to enable our members to gain maximum benefit for an affordable and means related fee. We depend on top-up grant assistance to keep going at present. Southampton City Council along with other small grants from various organisations have helped us scrape by. The prudent reserves which we had managed to accumulate have been severely depleted and cuts in paid hours for the Co-ordinator have had to be made recently. Government changes to the rules for grant assistance from Environmental Trusts now means this source of funding is no longer available and restrictive provisions associated with the National Lottery (Community Fund) prevent our qualifying since we don’t specifically target sections classed as socially deprived. Our current challenge in trying to keep the Store going and become more self-sufficient, is :-

Over 60 hours per week are given freely by our 20+ volunteers to enable the Store to more than adequately fulfil its charitable role. Another 7 volunteer workshop assistants have been helping to deliver ‘art from scrap’ workshops to the wider community; this is a new Scrapstore service which is proving very popular. The Scrapstore Volunteer Membership Clerk maintains and updates a membership database and works closely with the store co-ordinator to monitor the service, keep records and ensure members are happy and the service is reaching the wider community. The Intermediate Labour Market has identified the Scrapstore as a suitable placement for up to 3 course participants from Thornhill or Millbrook, course participants train and develop skills at the Scrapstore that can be used when seeking employment. The Scrapstore has also been identified as suitable for Community Service/Probation service placements, if supervision is provided.

We believe we provide excellent value for money and look forward to continuing in the service of the local and wider community!

The Scrapstore needs to maintain significant reserves in order to cater for possible future financial problems. Examples of future problems might be;

The level of reserves is more difficult to substantiate. Some charities try to maintain reserves equal to their annual turnover, others are happy with 50% of annual turnover.

Our annual turnover, excluding major projects or capital grants, is around £40,000 so our reserves should be at least £20,000. We have actually been significantly below this level over the past few years.