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The Lunch Discussion - Little Green Sock: Keeping Trafford's Children Warm and Confident · The Discussion Podcast

0:03
This is the Late Late Lunch Show
0:05
with Rod Maxwell supported by Childbird Learning in Nature's Playground,
0:18
So today on the Late Late Lunch Show I'm delighted to be speaking to Jed Carter
0:23
who's both a local councillor for Flixton at the Trafford Council And also speaking
0:30
today as a trustee of a charity that I didn't know about,
0:35
but it's part of a very important charity scene called Little Green Sock.
0:40
And here to talk about Little Green Sock and what they do is Jed Carter.
0:44
Good afternoon, Jed. How are you?
0:46
Rod, good afternoon. I'm really,
0:48
really well. Thanks. And thanks for inviting me on. It's a pleasure.
0:51
Now, today you're talking to me as a trustee of Little Green Sock,
0:56
which is a charity that I didn't know specifically about, but it's one of the
1:01
many important charities that support local communities.
1:05
And in this area, it's about clothing. Tell us about Little Green Sock, Jed.
1:11
I certainly will. Yeah, so Little Green Sock Project founded in Ermston within
1:16
Trafford about four years ago, five years ago.
1:19
We are colloquially known as a baby bank, and that means we provide essential
1:25
goods to families in extreme need.
1:29
And if we didn't meet that need, their children would go without both physical
1:34
goods, but also the opportunities that those goods allow them to they take advantage of.
1:39
So we're not just clothing, we're everything to do with children from birth
1:43
to 16 around clothing, footwear, toys and books, and particularly safety equipment.
1:51
So think of things like safe bedding spaces, safe transportation systems so
1:56
mum and dad can get their kids out, or stair gates, sort of safety stuff.
2:01
So it's anything that children need that enables them to take full advantage
2:07
of all the opportunities in front of them, whether that's going outside or having
2:10
a safe place to live and sleep.
2:13
And can I ask you straight off the bat, I guess, why do you think in today's
2:19
times there's still a need or there's a growing need for organizations such
2:25
as yours to provide what some people might see as very basic services,
2:30
very basic needs around clothing and safety, equipment, etc.
2:34
Why do you think that in today's society, more and more people are relying on
2:38
charity, whether it is for food or whether it is for clothing?
2:42
What do you think is behind all that?
2:44
I think there's two elements to that. I think partly this sort of need has always existed,
2:51
and it runs hand-in-hand with poverty, and it's just a bit more visible now
2:57
than it perhaps was 50 years or 100 years ago.
3:00
If you think back 100 years and the level of overcrowding and infant mortality
3:04
or whatever, it was a relatively common case.
3:07
I think as society has developed and moved on, there's a greater expectation
3:13
that children shouldn't be in need and a greater visibility of when children are in need.
3:18
Having said that, there is a real crisis across the country in terms of poverty in families.
3:28
And I seek to make no political point about that, but simply to justify and
3:33
explain why Little Green Sock Project and baby banks up and down the country
3:37
exist a bit like food banks.
3:39
So what we are finding is that now that the community knows that we exist,
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the demand for our services is going up and up.
3:50
Two years ago, Little Green Sox served, on average, two families per day, 365 days a year.
3:57
We're now serving four families per day, 365 days a year. That isn't because
4:03
in the last two years demand has doubled.
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It's because in trafford more and more people
4:08
are aware that there is help available through this incredible
4:12
organization called little green sock project and more
4:15
and more families in need are being referred to us so
4:18
whilst absolutely there is
4:21
a significant challenge for many many families driven by
4:24
the cost of living etc etc which has been well rehearsed over
4:27
the last 10-15 years little green
4:29
sock makes no judgment as to is that
4:32
growing is that declining it simply says we will address
4:35
this and we will not stand by and see children going without if
4:39
we can possibly help it and and i mean
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i i i guess we all know how important
4:45
it's in clothing isn't just a necessity because especially at children's ages
4:51
if you're not turning up in something that looks like other children you could
4:55
get bullied you could be impacted in other ways and and therefore it has a big
5:00
role in the confidence that a child experiences in their early years and beyond.
5:05
Absolutely. Quality clothing enables young people to fit in.
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But even more basically than that, hopefully we're coming out of the cold,
5:15
wet winter season, but if you can't afford to buy a coat for your child,
5:19
that stops them going out when it's cold and wet.
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If you can't afford to buy them waterproof shoes, then they're going to have wet feet all the time.
5:26
It's real basics like that. And then beyond the basics, if you want the child
5:31
to do sport, well, it might be football boots or whatever equipment.
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If you simply can't stretch your family budget to meet those things,
5:39
they miss out on all those opportunities, which puts them at a disadvantage
5:43
generally amongst that peer group.
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So we're all about saying, yeah, we will kick families and children out with.
5:52
Appropriate seasonally appropriate clothing and footwear, and then all the other
5:56
things that we'll probably talk about to make sure that not only can they fit
5:59
in, but they can take advantage of the opportunities that other children will just take for granted.
6:05
We'll take a break and we'll be back with Jed Carter talking today about a Trafford-based
6:10
charity called Little Green Sock and he's a trustee of that.
6:14
He's also an elected member of Trafford Council and we'll be talking more about
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this and also the organisations that are getting behind this because there's
6:23
a lot of big brands that are supporting this who obviously see the need as well.
6:28
We'll take a break and we'll be back with him in a couple of minutes time.
6:32
You're listening to The Late Late Lunch Show. With back to the garden childcare,
6:36
where little explorers grow naturally.
6:39
You're listening to Radio Alta, it's Rob Maxwell. And today we're talking about
6:43
the charity sector, which I know from my own experience, the charity sector
6:47
has become extremely professional, Jed, actually, hasn't it?
6:51
I mean, people now look at charity shops and they are merchandised like a professional
6:57
shop. and the whole charity organisation has increased its professionalism. Is that what you find?
7:03
It is. I guess I'm kind of a living example of that.
7:06
I spent the best part of 30 years in senior roles in retail marketing before
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moving to the charity sector for the last 10 years of my career.
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So I have run fundraising teams, regional local charities, charity retail chains.
7:21
And the objective for forward-leading charities is to look as effective and
7:27
professional and trustworthy as the big brands want to present themselves as.
7:32
So there's absolutely no regret or shame for charities trying to professionalize.
7:36
It's about getting as many experienced and capable people as possible to think,
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yes, I could do my bit and join the sector.
7:45
As well as thinking a pathology career in the private or the public sector.
7:48
And my experience from working Headway was that in a shop, you're doing everything
7:54
from merchandising, your stock management, your pricing,
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you're doing your visual merchandising as well, and you're interacting with your customers.
8:05
You're really a retail business all in one shop because a lot of those things
8:10
would have been done by head office for you. And it's a great place to learn
8:14
if you're coming in to volunteer and build new skills.
8:18
Yeah, yeah. The whole charity retail field is a beautiful work of business.
8:24
And almost everybody working in it is a volunteer.
8:28
Most charity shops have maybe one paid member and then a whole raft of brilliant volunteers.
8:34
I can remember when we did a refit at a charity store that I was responsible
8:36
for in Sheffield many years ago.
8:38
And one of our objectives was we will have the best changing room in the whole
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of Sheffield City because we could use vintage drapes and vintage furniture
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as well as vintage clothing and a vintage mirror,
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all of which were items of the kind of thing that were on sale within the store.
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But to make a point about, if you go to a chain department store,
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you won't get a fitting room as fabulous as this because that's the love and
9:01
the community focus that people in the sector bring in.
9:05
And I always felt like it's really important for the people to come in and need
9:10
it, to feel like they've got a professional retail offer, to not feel like it is charity.
9:15
You're able to get things that are cheaper, but also they have quality behind
9:20
them as well, because that's really quite important to your overall psychological feel, isn't it?
9:25
It is, and I think the whole charity retail sector is brilliant in terms of
9:29
reuse and recycling, quality control, making items affordable otherwise.
9:35
Might not be. And I think.
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Little Green Soft Project has learned from that, so we don't just say,
9:41
give us any old tap that's no longer fit for purpose.
9:45
We're very, very explicit when appealing for donations for clothing,
9:49
footwear, equipment, et cetera, to say they must be in great condition.
9:54
We don't want people receiving our bundles of stuff to think,
9:58
oh, I've got something that's a bit raggy and a bit warm.
10:01
We only distribute to our young people
10:05
in need items that are absolutely superb
10:09
condition yes they've been pre-loved and pre-used but only
10:12
we won't accept them and redistribute them if they're in fabulous condition
10:15
so in terms of the supporters because you
10:18
know it's the charity sector is is
10:21
more professional it takes a lot to keep going
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and you have got some very impressive companies
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and organizations behind you likes of forever manchester the
10:31
co-op which is a major contributor and always has been to the to the community
10:36
aj bell futures for example as well as trafford council the albert trust etc
10:42
how important is it to have these types of organizations working with you and
10:47
supporting you it's fundamental.
10:50
Our basic message is we know the community want us to do the work we're doing.
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And thankfully, the community understands that we're a charity.
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We don't receive any government funding. We can only continue to do the work
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we do and support four families every day in Trafford if people are generous in their support of us.
11:10
So that could either be you as an individual or it could be you as a group,
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a social group in Trafford, or it could be a company that does a lot of business. St. Trafford.
11:21
And all of those kinds of support are absolutely invaluable to us.
11:26
I mean, you cited A.J. Bell as one of our supporters. As a corporate supporter,
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they've been absolutely fantastic with us.
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Not only did they make a commitment that's more than just one year,
11:37
not a charity of the year project, but an ongoing project which is superb for
11:43
any charity to partner with.
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But secondly, they've been generous in their support financially and also in their
11:50
supportive of us in providing us with some free race places
11:53
to their great manchester run which aj bell are
11:56
the primary sponsor on and i might come back to that a bit
11:59
later in terms of how the community can get involved in supporting us and you
12:03
you were also saying to me earlier offer that actually the funding is coming
12:08
from the community it comes from voluntary donations because again to set up
12:13
these organizations whether it be the rents or whether it be the administration, the bureaucracy, etc.
12:18
All of that costs, you may be reliant on volunteers, but there are certain costs.
12:23
Why do you think people have responded and how have they responded, Jed?
12:28
Well, I got involved with Little Groove Soccer in November 2024 because the
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charity was facing an extinction event.
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They were trading out or they were operating out of premises which were scheduled
12:42
for demolition redevelopment, and we were given notice to quit.
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But to get a new premises at about 5,000 square feet on a commercial lease,
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we needed to demonstrate that we could pay the rent for at least five years.
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And as a very new charity, we didn't have that money in the bank.
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We had to set up a Save Our Baby Bank appeal to try and raise £200,000 in five months.
13:04
Now, for an almost new charity, that is pretty much unheard of.
13:09
And I joined as part of that drive.
13:13
And what we are delighted to say is, because the community responded fully,
13:20
effectively saying, we will not see the charity disappear.
13:23
It's too important to let that happen. The community got together and helped
13:27
us to raise £200,000 within six months, which has enabled us to take on a five-year
13:34
lease on the premises just behind Asdao and Trafford Park.
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So we are there for at least five years.
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We've got our roots set in the community, supported by the community,
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and we've survived that threat to our existence.
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And that is because the community, both individuals, school groups and other
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support groups and some companies stepped forward and said, yeah,
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we will put our hand in the pocket because we believe in this.
14:00
We think traffic would be a worse place for the Arctic.
14:03
I have to say, it seems to be an organization that supports the community,
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that's funded and, if you like, foundations are in the community as well.
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I'll take another break, and I want to find out how people can interact with Little Green Sock.
14:19
Where can they go to get support for their families, for their children?
14:23
Today, I'm speaking to one of the trustees of Little Green Sock.
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It's Jed Carter, the elected member for Trafford Council for Flixson as well.
14:30
We'll be back with Jed in a couple of minutes' time.
14:35
This is the Late Late Lunch Show with Rod Maxwell on Radio Alty.
14:42
You're listening to Radio Alty. It's Rod Maxwell on the Late Late Lunch Show,
14:44
supported by our friends from Back to the Garden Childcare.
14:47
And today we're talking about children. We're talking about an organisation,
14:52
a voluntary organisation that supports them.
14:54
It's called Little Green Sock Project, and specifically around clothing and
14:59
other equipment that kids need.
15:01
And we all know kids grow quickly.
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They have great demands. They go through clothing and they need gear.
15:09
It can be tough out there for parents.
15:12
It absolutely can i think one of the joys
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for us as a charity in that their children grow
15:18
up and they grow out of things quickly is quite often things haven't
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been worn until they're worn out yes and what
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we say is if your child has enjoyed something and you've
15:27
enjoyed seeing in it or using it then please pass it on to level green stock
15:31
project we will get it into the hands of kids that will otherwise go without
15:35
well you know jed this is the thing that strikes me that you know Every time
15:39
I go out to the R4GM site just outside of Ultringham,
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and they have a great shop there that sells goods that would have typically
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gone on to the waste, right?
15:54
And you sort of think, what did we do with items before we had the charity sector,
16:01
the very professional charity sector, to take them to, to donate?
16:05
Because there are so many things these days that are worn very seldom.
16:12
You can go to a charity shop and you're almost buying a brand new item.
16:15
It's quite incredible. I don't know where all this stuff was going before the
16:20
charity sector really professionalized or industrialized, if you like.
16:25
I don't know myself, but I guess the message to your listeners is,
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if you have any children's clothing, footwear,
16:36
brands, boogies, sleep systems, stair gates, anything that young children might
16:43
need, then you can donate it to us if it's in good condition,
16:46
and we will get it to your families that are in need. to donate to us.
16:51
You can look up, if you Google Little Green Stop Project, up we pop and look
16:55
on how do I donate and you'll get all the instructions there.
16:58
Or I believe just recently, ASDA in Altrincham, I've just opened a drop-off
17:05
point so you can drop off your pre-loved goods at the ASDA in Altrincham as
17:09
well and they will get into us. That is fantastic. That is absolutely fantastic.
17:13
So basically, you're going to your location your location in Shetford, is that right?
17:20
The new location is just behind the Astron Trafford Park. Ah, okay.
17:24
So that's, and you go there and you go into a shop, if you like,
17:29
and there are the items on display.
17:33
Is there any criteria for being able to shop there, Jed?
17:36
No, no, we're not a shop. We're a warehouse. So we receive the goods,
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check that they're in good condition, and then bundle them up into,
17:44
say, and then bundle them up.
17:45
18 months to 24 months or five to seven
17:48
years and create bundles and
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it'll be seats in the winter it'll be warmer where summer it'll
17:54
be cooler where right etc and then you
17:58
as an individual you couldn't call them say i need this stuff you have to be
18:02
referred so the most of our clients come through referrals from adult social
18:09
care teams or children's social care teams who are dealing with families who
18:13
may have some level of needs.
18:15
There are also some referrers in some schools in Trafford that are taking referrals
18:21
on behalf of disadvantaged parents.
18:23
So only a professional referrer can access the goods.
18:28
And they will give a description of the child or children that this family has
18:31
and what their requirements are.
18:33
And then Little Greenstock will pull together the bundle of goods.
18:38
The professional, the social worker, the school worker, whatever,
18:41
will come and pick that fundle up and deliver it directly to the home of the family in need.
18:45
So they don't need to go anywhere, they don't need to get out,
18:48
but they're given a fundle that is bespoke to the needs that they've voiced
18:53
and identified with that social worker or care or school support worker.
18:57
And you know, therefore, is going direct to where the need is and also makes
19:02
it easier for them to be able to access it in a number of ways.
19:05
Yeah and there's there's a beautiful extra benefit
19:09
what i i find is quite a lot of people
19:12
who have a lot of dealings with officials uh
19:15
whether the council officials or dwp or whichever department of local national
19:20
government sometimes can have a bit of um a tricky relationship with them and
19:26
sometimes i can feel all i get is people telling me what to do and how i'm not
19:30
doing enough or doing things the right way.
19:33
What we're finding from our social worker colleagues and supporters is that
19:38
they are finding if they go to a family and say, look, if you need some things
19:43
for your child, we can get them for you for free and we'll bring them to your doorstep for you.
19:48
Suddenly, that's a way of them engaging in a positive, encouraging way that
19:53
isn't seen as being perhaps critical or challenging.
19:59
And once they do that, and then maybe in 6-12 months time, there's another requirement and there's,
20:03
No need to ask. There's another bundle provided to meet your children's needs.
20:09
What our referring colleagues are telling us is that is helping them build constructive
20:15
relationships with their client families.
20:17
And that then opens the door to them to say, look, there's a playgroup around
20:21
the corner. Would you be able to take a chance to playgroup?
20:25
Or here's some additional support from an education point of view that you might
20:29
not otherwise have been accessing.
20:30
All that sounds a bit complex and technical but
20:33
what we're getting from the people in the field the feedback
20:36
we're getting is these donations from people going to them to help their children
20:41
with clothing footwear equipment are opening the door to a much better constructive
20:46
relationship that's enabling them to access more health social services and
20:51
education services than otherwise they might have.
20:55
Done so it's an extra benefit beyond the value
20:57
of the goods themselves and and the difference to a child who's
21:00
getting that support going into school
21:03
feeling a bit more confident feeling better about
21:06
what they're wearing their their further application in school etc what it does
21:11
then is it gives them a fine a proper foundation for their life absolutely you
21:17
bring it down to people yeah the hair stories of i've got two sons only one
21:21
of them can play football on saturday because we've only got one set of football
21:24
boots. That sort of thing.
21:27
To the kids who get a football boot is not a problem. It wouldn't occur to them
21:31
that they see people dropping out.
21:33
All they see is somebody's dropped out as opposed to no fault of their own.
21:37
There's a need to stop being met. So we can provide clothing and footwear that
21:42
enables kids to get out and do stuff and just live life and have fun and get
21:46
involved and get optimistic,
21:48
then that's helping our family bring up children that are part of the community
21:54
and don't feel that disadvantage and openness.
21:58
And as one of the members of the organization, at your capacity as a trustee,
22:03
you must get a sense of pride to see or to hear the stories that are coming
22:09
from your supporters and your volunteers of the difference that it's making
22:14
to people's lives. Thank you.
22:16
Absolutely. I retired from working for charities a couple of years ago and spent
22:22
my time looking for an organization that I could work for voluntarily that would
22:27
really motivate me and I could see it make a real difference to people in my community.
22:32
And I was quite selective, quite choosy. And when Catherine,
22:36
the founder of Little Greensault, got in touch and asked me,
22:39
could I possibly get involved?
22:41
Effectively, I went and interviewed her. She said, look, how good a fit is this
22:45
for me? Is this the kind of thing I'm looking for?
22:47
And within 20 minutes, my goodness, I mean, she'd absolutely got me.
22:52
The level of dynamism and commitment and vision and passion that was demonstrated
22:57
by Catherine, the founder, and all the volunteers around here and colleagues
23:02
around here just maybe want to get involved.
23:04
And because you can do that direct correlation between we'll keep the place
23:08
open, we'll raise the money to keep the wheels turning, and that means children
23:12
in my community have a better chance of living healthily, with fun,
23:17
with opportunity, and safely.
23:20
That absolutely motivates me to get out of bed and do stuff like Little Green Sock.
23:25
Well, if you have been inspired by anything that we've talked about today on
23:29
the website, maybe you can volunteer some time.
23:32
Maybe you've got some clothing. Maybe you have a company that ends up with more
23:37
kids' clothing than you know what to do with.
23:41
You can get involved and go to littlegreensock.org. You can contact them through
23:46
that. They're also on Facebook and Twitter, or I call it Twitter still,
23:51
Facebook X and Instagram as well.
23:54
Anything else, Jed, we should say? Absolutely. I've got a special offer to all
24:01
residents who fancy getting out in their trainers.
24:04
The Great Manchester Run, end of May this year, is the best biggest 10K in the UK.
24:09
If you choose to run it for Little Green Sob Project,
24:14
we will get you a free race place that's worth 50 quid a load of people would
24:19
love to do it but haven't got the 50 quid to pay to run the race if you will
24:23
commit to running it raising at least.
24:26
175 pounds in sponsorship for us we will get you a free race place there's nobody
24:32
for a deal like that it's fantastic get it out to your radio altar call to your
24:35
listeners you can access that through the website but greensop.org,
24:40
Do yourself a favor. Run the Great Manchester 10K or half marathon.
24:44
Do it for free. Raise a sub-cap.
24:46
You know, you've heard the man. And I've just got to say, go to the website. It's a lovely website.
24:51
I've just seen the impact over the last 12 months of this organization is that
24:55
they've distributed somewhere around the region of £220,000 worth of items across
25:02
nearly 1,300 bundles of items.
25:05
And that means that that it's going
25:09
to directly the families in this area helping
25:12
them in a number of ways it provides confidence it
25:15
provides essentials to them as well and yeah um and as you say there's a great
25:21
offer if you fancy running the uh the um the is it the marathon or 10k great
25:26
manchester run so it's a 10k under half marathon you you pick your level of
25:30
pain right I could see myself one time being able to do that. Not anymore.
25:35
But Jed Carter, great to speak to you. And thank you for sharing that story
25:39
with us. And good luck. Thank you, Rob.
25:42
This is the Late Late Lunch Show. With Back to the Garden Childcare,
25:47
where little explorers grow naturally.