Homelessness charity Crisis is planning to launch a chain of charity shops, after a successful trial with two outlets.
The charity has run two shops for several months in Hackney and Finsbury Park in London and now plans open more.
Sarah Farquhar, director of innvoation and enterprise at Crisis, said the charity decided to launch its chain because it was an opportunity to provide employment and volunteering opportunities for beneficiaries, as well as to generate funds, and because it provided an opportunity to talk to potential supporters.
“There are good reasons not to do charity shops,” she said. “There are already many thousands in the UK. So we had to think quite hard about whether to open any. But the reason we’re looking to do it is to improve outcomes for homeless people.”
She said that around half the team working in the charity’s two existing shops have experience of being homeless.
“Most charities open shops to make money,” she said, “and ours do make money. But it’s been thinking about how shops contribute more than money which is most valuable to me.
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“In Finsbury Park, we were able to put a whole manifesto about what we were doing in the community in the window, and really build our brand.”
Farquhar said the charity has not set a target for how many shops it is looking to open, but it will not be “hundreds and hundreds”.
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