Hands On London's second annual coat collection campaign took place in November 2012. Building on the success of the inaugural campaign in 2011, we collected and distributed a phenomenal 8,520 coats to 68 different shelters and refuges in order to help keep London’s most vulnerable warm during the winter.

Thank you

The success of Wrap Up London 2012 is due to the unwavering support of countless people, including our generous sponsors, hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers, all the companies and individuals who made a donation to help fund the operation, and of course everyone who donated a coat – thank you to all of those who made it possible!

Summary of WUL 2012’s Achievements

Wrap Up London’s inaugural campaign
in 2011 collected coats at 7 London tube stations for one morning, and managed
to gather in 2,800 coats which were distributed to 50 London shelters and refuges.
In 2012 we managed to triple that number of donations.

In 2012, we collected at 8 tube stations - Paddington, Victoria, King's Cross, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street, Charing Cross, & London Bridge – for three mornings, and also made it possible for people who had hosted coat collections, or simply had a coat in their cupboard and missed the tube spots, to drop off coats over a two week period at one of three Safestore Self Storage centres and the Broadgate Welcome Centre.

Almost 10,000 clothing items were donated in total, including 8,520 coats: 

Tube station collections: almost 6, 000 coats – the busiest station was London Bridge, followed closely by Canary Wharf and Kings Cross

Coat collections hosted by companies, schools and community organisations: around 1,500 coats

Coats dropped off by individuals at one of our Safestore storage warehouses and the Broadgate Welcome Centre: just over 1,000 coats

483 volunteers took part: 

409 helped at the tube stations

56 helped to sort the coats at the warehouses

18 helped to distribute the coats

Beneficiary shelters, refuges and other charities

68 shelters and refuges across Greater London received coats!

We donated coats to the following 68 organisations, which help a range of people in need including the homeless, elderly, refugees and immigrants, women and children who have fled domestic violence and children in poverty:

Crisis at Christmas; 999 Club; Spitalfields Crypt Trust; Women for Refugee Women; People Can; Age Concern - Lewisham and Southwark; Providence Row Housing Association - Middle Street; Hackney Night
Shelter; Radicle – Whitechapel; Providence Row Housing Association - Providence House; Hackney Road Project; Queen Victoria Seamen's Rest; Anchor House; New Horizon Youth Centre; Solace Women's Aid; ASLAN; Quaker Homeless Action; St.Lukes; London Catholic Worker; MUNGOS - Argyle Mental Health Centre; MUNGOS - Birkenhead Street Centre; MUNGOS - St. Pancras Way Centre; MUNGOS - Brooke Street Centre; MUNGOS – Bondway Centre; MUNGOS - Hackney Centre; MUNGOS - Harringey Centre; North London Action for Homeless; The Chocolate Run; Shelter From The Storm; Union Chapel; Homeless Action in Barnet; Simon Community; Islington Centre for Refugees and Immigrants; Finsbury Park Mission; Homeless Resource Centre; Salvation Army - Booth House/Whitechapel; Cranstoun; The Manna; Centrepoint - Camberwell; Centrepoint - Greek Street; Centrepoint - Berwick Street; Centrepoint - Olympia; Centrepoint - Kensington; Spires; Spear; West London Homeless Concern; Ace of Clubs; St. Cuthbert's Centre; Action for Refugees in Lewisham; Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers; STORM; Eaves; Broadway Centre-some affiliates; American Church - Soup Kitchen; The Upper Room; St. Johns Ealing; West London Day Centre; 240 Project; Elders Voice Brent; Doorstep Homeless Families Project; Salvation Army – Harlesden; CARIS Islington Churches Cold Weather Centre; Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI); Red Cross; Terrence Higgins Trust; Hestia; Minerva; Jesuit Refugee Services

Neil Kennedy, Crisis at Christmas:

'A big “Thank you!” to Hands On London and Safestore. Your wonderful support will make an incredible difference to the lives of so many homeless people this winter.’

Dil Chowdry, Hackney Road Project:

‘I would like to say a huge thank you for your great generosity in including the Hackney Road Project in your Wrap Up London Scheme. The tenants at Hackney Road are single homeless people… and at times struggle to put food on their table and have basics like gas and electricity. Therefore items like coats have always been a luxury for them. Your generosity in your donations to the project have been deeply appreciated. 35 homeless people now have a wonderful winter coat to keep them warm. That’s one less thing to worry about this winter thanks to you.’

Shoaban Nair, Radicle:

‘Radicle was very pleased to receive two bags of winter coats for women and young children from Wrap Up London. This donation means that those who arrive at our residential schemes with limited clothing can keep warm over the winter. Big thanks to the Hands On London team for coordinating things so flexibly!’

Wrap Up London Supporters

Hands On London would like to thank the following for their remarkable support – we benefitted from not only their generous contributions but also their boundless enthusiasm throughout:

Local Coat Collections

Hands On London would also like to say a big thank you to the over 60 companies, community groups, schools and others in and around London who hosted coat collections and/or donated their stock to WUL 2012 - some of these are:

American School London; Blake Lapthorn; Broadgate Estates; Charterhouse Square School; Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work; Crew Clothing Co.; Debenhams; Hewlett Packard; Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC; Kings College London; Kings Place Building Management; Merc Clothing; Paramount Properties; Rank Interactive Ltd.; RLM Finsbury; NMR Rothschild and Sons Ltd.; SAP; Shearman and Sterling; South Hampstead Synagogue; Ted Baker; Thermo Fisher;  Timberland; TradeWeb; Vitol; VML London; Warner Bros; Willmott Dixon; William Blair.

Volunteers

Nearly 500 volunteers joined in Wrap Up London 2012, many of whom volunteered several times over the course of the month. Whether you were handing out flyers during morning rush hour, gathering in coats – in some cases, literally off people’s backs – at one of the tube stations, lugging heavy bags of donated jackets up to the vans to take them to the warehouses, sorting through the thousands of donations, or back on the London streets transporting the coats to the recipients, your help was invaluable. We have been inspired by your drive to make the campaign a success and persuaded more than ever that Londoners make great volunteers!

Elizabeth Grier, HOL’s CEO and Founder, would also like to personally thank the Wrap Up London organising committee and station team leaders for their outstanding commitment and effort – Carolyn, Nicola, Frankie, Susanna, Alice, Mo, Brenna, Rachel, Zach and Suzy. If you are interested in getting involved with the organising committee next year, email us at info@handsonlondon.org.uk

Press

Please click on the links below to see some of the media coverage for Wrap Up London 2012:

http://londonist.com/2012/09/help-wrap-up-london-for-winter.php

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/fashion/get-your-coat-and-donate-it-to-wrap-up-london-8312868.html 

http://www.timeout.com/london/around-town/event/101179/wrap-up-london 

http://www.broadgate.co.uk/News/Detail/121

http://www.poppyloves.co.uk/2012/10/wrap-up-london.html

http://www.run-riot.com/articles/notices/hands-london-launches-wrap-london-2012 

http://www.avaproject.org.uk/sector-news/notice-board/campaign-wrap-up-london-2012.aspx

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/metro/26087.aspx

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/id/D3D2873C-55A9-4716-B386FDD28F587F33 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/London-For-Free/224203727612545?fref=ts (scroll down to 30 Oct
for the post about WUL)

Donate!

Wrap Up London is only one part of what Hands On London seeks to achieve by making volunteering in London easy and flexible. To ensure that Hands On London continues to help the wider community for 2013 and beyond, please make a donation towards the costs of Wrap Up London and Hands On London’s wider work by going to our Virgin Giving page here:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1004996

We are very grateful for everyone’s support!