County Press – 25 May 2012
Fun day for good cause
A family fun day, with live music, children’s games and pirate re-enactments, will be held at Cowes Yacht Haven, on Sunday, from noon to 3pm.
The free event has been organised by the Co-operative supermarket, to relaunch its community support card scheme.
The card is being reintroduced at the Cowes store, to raise money for the Cowes Youth Forum and Storeroom2010.
Card-carrying customers have helped the supermarket raise £25,000 for 2nd Cowes Sea Scouts and Cowes Sports Football Club.
County Press – 18 May 2012
Donate your goods for charity to sell on. Cowes is home to a charity that helps people in need to furnish their homes.
Storeroom in Bridge Road, supplies low-cost furniture and other household items.
The charity was set up in 2004 as part of the Real World Trust, a charity that helped people overcome drug and alcohol addictions and build new lives.
Two years ago, the Storeroom project became independent and self-funding. It is now run by a team of six staff, with the help of 20 volunteers. The manager is Nick Miller.
The charity accepts donations of items that are ready for immediate re-use. These are sold to members of the public and to clients who are referred by 50 Island agencies.
Items for sale at the Storeroom range from tables, chairs, wardrobes, bed and lounge suites, to curtains, kettles, pots and pans. The charity arranges collection of donated furniture, usually within 5 working days.
Beacon – April 2012
Storeroom2010 is an island charity dedicated to helping island people. Our charity warehouse and shop is open to everyone; Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. Thanks to last year’s generous donations of furniture and other household items, Storeroom was able to help approximately 350 disadvantaged families with furnishing their homes; as clients with referrals from IOW support agencies benefit from further discounts. Last year furniture re-used, rather than just being thrown away, saved over 126,500kgs from our island’s landfill, so this benefits our environment too.
Island Business Magazine January/February 2012
Storeroom2010 collects reusable furniture from those who don’t want it and offers it to those who do.
In the past, furniture and household goods were given to disadvantaged people referred by Island support agencies. When funding ended 18 months ago, the organisation began generating its own income by selling at higher prices to the general public and has never looked back.
Led by husband and wife team, Nick and Wendy Miller, Storeroom2010 is not just helping people in need, it is also reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill.
Last month alone it sold around 12.500 kilos of furniture and household goods that would otherwise have been dumped – equivalent to filling its showroom four times over.
Nick founded Storeroom ten years ago working out of a van. He said ‘We are busier than ever. Forty agencies on the island refer clients to us and we are at the moment seeing around 50 new clients each month, ranging from young families to elderly people.
‘The economic climate is certainly causing problems for many on the Island and we are seeing the divide between rich and poor getting deeper. A lot of people are not accessing the benefits because the support system has been affected by cutbacks and that is having an effect too.
‘We lost our funding 18 months ago and it was the start of a new era for us. We now have 20 volunteers and three part timers. Funding is marvellous, but it can easily be withdrawn too, so I prefer it this way’.
Storeroom2010 recently joined the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce because it is keen to build links with businesses that may help keep up the supply of furniture.
‘We do get furniture from a wide range of businesses, including kitchen fitters, estate agents and furniture retailers, but we would love to build a bigger network’ Nick said.
Island Business Magazine November/December 2011
The Storeroom project is a proactive charitable organisation priding itself on its strong sense of community spirit. Storeroom collects items of reusable furniture (compliant with Fire Safety in the case of soft furnishings) then offers it at low cost to the Island community who are not able to furnish their own homes.
Furniture donated by Island residents may otherwise have been taken to the landfill site, so this also minimises the impact on the environment. Storeroom offfers island residents this recycling opportunity to really help their community and environment.
Storeroom was previously awarded funding from DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and is actively seeking to forge links with other local businesses with a view toward reducing landfill by recycling useable items that otherwise might be discarded.
County Press 18 November 2011
Helping hand for IW families
For more than ten years, Storeroom has helped thousands of Island families get back on their feet by offering quality second-hand furniture and household goods at affordable prices, helping to improve living standards and quality of life.
April 2010 was a difficult time for many of the Island’s support agencies and the Real World Trust and Storeroom project, with others, had to draw back and re-group. Now, two years down the line, the Real World Trust is still going strong, as is the Storeroom, regardless of funding being withdrawn.
More good news is that Storeroom, is now open to everyone, not just referred clients.
Storeroom, based in Cowes, is run by a team of kind-hearted volunteers, managed by Nick Miller.
‘A huge thank you must go to our volunteers, who regularly give 150-200 hours of their time every week to keep Storeroom open. Thanks must also go to our Island community, who have been so generous with donations, without which the Storeroom, would not have survived’ said Nick.
Storeroom is also doing its bit to help the environment by saving more than 120 metric tons of unwanted furniture from Island landfill in the past 12 months and with the help of the Island community, hopes to increase this figure to between 150-200 metric tons in the coming year.
Storeroom’s future looks promising at the moment but Nick added: ‘You cannot become complacent during these difficult financial times’.
Cowes Beacon July 2011
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME
The Storeroom in Bridge Road, Cowes, has now achieved its own charity status and is working hard to provide donated furniture, white goods and household items which people facing a crisis who have been referred by the Island’s many support agencies can buy at little cost. The project has other beneficial outcomes: it reduces the amount of often bulky items taken to landfill. It’s shop is open Monday to Friday (10am-4pm) for the general public to search through the reasonably priced goods for those special items (thereby creating extra income) and it provides work experience for volunteers, building the confidence they need to look for paid employment.
Nick and Wendy Miller, who run Storeroom 2010, can boast that during the first six months of operation without financial assistance some 200 needy clients were helped, more than 41,000kgs of potential landfill were given a second life and over 2,500 hours of vital volunteer time were recorded.
If you have reusable furniture or household items you no longer need, the Storeroom can collect them from you. This can be arranged by phoning 298679. Or why not pop in the shop for a browse, or visit www.storeroom.org.uk to find out more.
County Press 1 July 2011
Despite a year without any funding, a Cowes based project has continued to help those in need. Storeroom, based at Bridge Road, has celebrated it’s first birthday, 12 months after it became its own charity when funding ran out. The project, which provides furniture at a reduced rate to people through a referral system, runs on donations. Administrator Wendy Miller, whose husband Nick is the manager, said she hoped the project would still be going strong in another 12 months. Mrs Miller said: “It’s great we are still here for the people who need us and we hope to keep going as long as we can”.
County Press 17 June 2011
Over the last 10 years, the Storeroom charity in Cowes, helped by a team of volunteers, has helped thousands of Island families by offering quality second-hand furniture and household goods at very affordable prices – improving living standards and quality of life.
Thanks to the generous donations and support of the Island community, customers can also receive a sustantial discount when referred through a support agency or job centre plus.
As an added environmental benefit, the charity saves 80 to 100 tonnes of unwanted furniture from Island landfill each year.
County Press 8 April 2011
The Island’s branch of MIND has celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week at a special awards ceremony staged at the Riverside Centre, Newport.
The event was attended by guests including the Island’s High Sheriff, Peter Kingston and the IW Council chairman, Cllr Ian Stephens.
It was called to highlight the contribution made by individuals and groups involved with mental health on the IW and also provided an opportunity for service users to find out more about the services provided locally, as well as celebrating positive successes that have been achieved.
Special figurines commissioned by IW MIND and South Wight Housing Association were presented at the awards ceremony.
MIND project manager Paddy Noctor said “IW MIND has an important part to play in the development and provision of services on the Island, for example, working with the Riverside Centre to provide healthy lifestyle facilities in Quay House, providing training and self-help courses and developing a supporting people project in 2011.
Winners of Wight Mind Awards 2011
Recovery – Jane Steele, Employment – Nick and Wendy Miller (Storeroom), Carers - Milligan House staff team, Opportunities – Dave West, Volunteers – Emma Sainsbury, Education – Jacky Smith (IAPT Team), Resources – Peter Garlick, Yippee/Innovation – New Beginnings, Professional development – Osborne Ward staff team.
Cowes Beacon March 2011
The Storeroom in Bridge Road, Cowes, provides second-hand furniture for people in need. Originally set up in 2004 with funding from the Real World Trust, the facility moved to Cowes two years later. Unfortunately the funding then ended and the staff decided to take the project on themselves, despite it making a loss. A referral system enables clients to buy furniture at reduced rates, but private customers can also visit the store to choose from a wide selection of good quality items.
County Press 11 February 2011
It was losing tens of thousands of pounds a year but the future of a Cowes based project to help those in need has been turned around.
Nick Miller, manager of The Storeroom, said there were fears the facility could close last year, when the Real World Trust said it could no longer fund the operation.
The Storeroom started as a small operation in 2004, providing furniture to those in need, through the Real World Trust – which supports recovering alcoholics and drug addicts – and in 2006 it moved to its current warehouse and shop in Bridge Road, Cowes.
“We started out in lock up garages, working strictly for the Real World Trust, helping people who had no furniture and no means to get any” said Mr Miller.
Last year, the Real World Trust was no longer able to fund the service and there were fears it would close.
“When we made the decision to take it on, it was losing about £20,000 a year. When you have the grant funding you are in a luxurious position, but you don’t realise it until it’s gone. I felt there was a demand for the service and a way of securing it’s future. It was a leap of faith, but I was very lucky there is such a good team of people helping”
Mr Miller, who took over the project last July and now has a small staff supported by a team of volunteers, said, “There is no funding now. We are totally self-sufficient and what we take through the door is what keeps us going”.
The project now helps people through a referral system, working with clients from dozens of organisations to help them purchase furniture at a reduced rate and with private customers who can also visit the store.
