AFC | Covid-19 Industry Profile Series

In this series, we continue to see how members from across our industry community are navigating these unprecedented times. Next up, Anthony Chesler, CEO of the Australian charity Thread Together, working to clothe community members in need and put an end to clothing waste in the process…

Tell us about Thread Together…

In an ethical response to fashion waste and towards dignity and hope for a better tomorrow, Thread Together is a registered charity and Australia’s highest ethical response to fashion excess. Thread Together diverts end-of-line, new clothing apparel and footwear from landfill and redistributes it through a network of charities and social service agencies to Australians in need around the country.

What are some of the key challenges that you in your business, AND others in your industry community are facing around COVID-19? How are you navigating these?

We are currently facing a number of challenges:

1. Unable to utilise corporate and community volunteers to assist with sorting, picking and packing orders due to social distancing restrictions.

2. Ceased ability to access capacity from hosting work for the dole individuals.

3. Closed all of our fashion clothing hub (shopfronts).

4. Unable to utilise our fleet of mobile wardrobes to provide dignified outreach service.

5. Unable to conduct fundraising events to raise much needed funds required to deliver our services.

Since our fashion hubs are closed and our fleet of mobile wardrobes are idle and our network of charities and social service agencies have ceased outreach services, we are driving all foot traffic to our online wardrobe (e-commerce platform).

We have had to make modifications to our e-commerce platform to enable vulnerable people to order clothing directly. This means individuals referred to Thread Together by our partners will receive a unique token to place an order for the clothing that they need, whether this is to keep them warm or ready them with suitable clothing for work.

How will you be passing the time during social distancing?

Homelessness, domestic violence, mental health does not stop with the onset of a pandemic. Thread Together is doing everything we can to continue providing our service while respecting the health and safety guidance.

How can people find out more and get involved?

We truly believe in a collaborative approach to clothe communities and acknowledge that we do not have the human and financial resources to go it alone.

We need corporate and community volunteers to avail their time to assist us to sort, pick and pack with purpose in our fulfilment centre, to drive our fleet of mobile wardrobes and support our network of stylists in our fashion community hubs.

We need talented individuals to support us to deliver on some of our strategic priorities particularly where we have capacity and capability gaps specifically around marketing, social media, photography and copywriting.

We need introductions to new charities and social service agencies so that we can provide more clothing to people in need; introductions to new fashion partners to ensure we get clothing on to the backs of people doing it tough and not in landfill and introductions to networks for funding to ensure we can continue to deliver our services while we work on becoming financially self sufficient.

Finally, we are entirely reliant on philanthropic support and need financial and in-kind support to ensure that we can continue to deliver our services.  For a donation of $5, we are able to provide a new wardrobe to a person in need.