We're still open!

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Community laundry over the last 8 months and beyond…

It’s been quite some time since we have sent out a newsletter, so we wanted to get in touch with all our supporters and let you know what we have been up to over the last 8 months and what we have planned over the winter.

Since we received the news back in March that we were allowed to remain open due to being on the list of essential services, the team and board pulled together a plan to do our best to support both our team and our regular customers who still needed access to our facilities. We have utilised furlough where needed to support staff unable to work, and changed to a drop off and collection service only to protect the staff still working the best we can.

We also managed to secure grants from The Steve Morgan Foundation, LCRcares and Power to Change to support those most in need in our community during this unprecedented time. We have been focusing on three key groups most impacted by the pandemic; older and disabled people shielding at home, people in financial hardship and key workers who needed support during a time of acute pressure in the first wave.

(left )Here's the lovely Lawrence from Agile Bikes, who does our cargo bicycle deliveries

(right)Here's Tony after just receiving his laundry through our free laundry service, with his laudry products gifted from Ecover

Here's some of the hundreds of scrubs we washed for hospitals across Merseyside, in partnership with volunteers from Help Dress Medics, For the Love of Scrubs and Scrubhub during the first Covid19 lockdown

In May we virtually celebrated our 1st birthday social media, sharing some uplifting stories about we have achieved in our first year open.

Over this time we have also be forming new partnerships with other local organisations, washing baby clothes donated by the LFC Foundation going to the Liverpool Women’s Hospital baby unity and other charitable organisations. Working with Regenda Housing Association to do a large amount of eco dry cleaning for their dress for success program, supporting people through job interviews.

In September we worked with Social Impact Consulting to produce a full social return on investment report to look at our areas of impact, and learn about how we can asses what we do and work to keep improving and growing the impact of our small organisation. We have made a blog post about this on our website where you can read more about this link.

This year we also became an accredited Real Living Wage Employer, something we have always wanted to do, despite the challenges for a new and growing organisation, as it is in line with our core values as an organisation.

Going forward this winter…

Shielding and financial hardship service

We are still open for anyone with our launderette drop off and collection service. We will also be continuing our shielding delivery service for those who need it for the foreseeable future as we have seen that the demand has not gone away. We welcome new referrals for anyone who might need to use this service.

Please call us on 0151 260 8951
For more information and to arrange collections

or

If you are an organisation who works with older and shielding people who could benefit from our free delivery service or our free DIY service for people in financial hardship, then please get in touch with us via email info@kittyslaunderette.org.uk

Commercial customers

We have expanded to also be accepting paid services for washing duvets, rugs and other items with the delivery service for people locally and across the city.

We also now have some regular customers in hospitality such as Squash Nutrition in L8, The Bagelry in Chinatown and The Little shoe Bakery on Bold Street who wanted to have a delivery service, and we hope to develop this as a cross subsidised service going forward.

If you have weekly commercial laundry needs and would like to enquire about the service please contact us via email info@kittyslaunderette.org.uk

Supporters Pins and Gifts

We have had a number of our regular customers and supporters asking if we could start a pay-it-forward scheme so that they could donate money to be used in our free laundry services for older and disabled people shielding at home and people in financial hardship.

Over the summer we were also approached by the amazing @p.i.n.h.e.a.d who made us these beautiful enamel pin badges of our laundry shopfront. We have decided to use them as a gift to people who choose to make this donation to the scheme. Please follow the link to bag yourself a lovely badge!

We also have craft items for sale on our online shop, many of which make perfect social enterprise Christmas gifts for your loved ones

A huge thank you to all of you who support us in many ways through advice, encouragement and doing your laundry with us.

We hope it’s not too long before we get to see you again

Best wishes from the team at Kitty’s Launderette