What is Social Flock? 

Social Flock is a community clothing charity. We aim to mitigate the impact of poverty and reduce our community’s reliance on fast fashion by providing FREE clothing packs of pre-loved and new clothing.

What is in a Back to School Pack? 

Our packs include 3 shirts, 2 bottoms, 2 jumpers/cardis, 2 PE t shirts, 2 PE bottoms, a PE jumper and a school bag. We also aim to include school shoes and/or trainers plus stationary and other back to school essentials like pack lunch boxes. Everything a child needs for taking part in their school journey. 

Why do many days’ worth of clothing?  Well, Child Poverty Action Group research found that some children were reporting that they were missing school because they only had one uniform, and it was in the wash. If we give more, we empower young people to engage more. Especially with the rising energy costs, families will not be able to wash uniform as frequently. We want to keep children dressed in clean, high quality pre-loved clothes, for as much of the week as possible.

Packs are personalised to each schools colours and the child’s style preferences (so you can tell us if they won’t wear shorts, or will only wear cardigans!) and their sensory needs to make sure the packs are made to suit the individual. We also ask for bag colours and characters and try our hardest to match up to their personal style. One child asked for a Frozen bag and we managed to get one for her, she put it on as soon as she got her pack and didn't want to take it off! 

Who can apply? 

We believe in making our projects as accessible as possible so if you live in Perth, attend a local Primary or High School, and wear clothing you can apply, and all applications are successful.  This means anyone impacted by the Cost of Living Crisis, or interested in being more climate aware, can apply no matter their income.  

Everyone is feeling the pinch right now and a pack of uniform really helps with 40% of carers saying their 2022 pack improved their mental health and over 50% stating it made their children excited to return to school. 

Families can self-refer meaning no one else has to be involved in your application process. We share our links with local schools and nurseries to circulate and we're building more partnerships and direct links with schools all the time. We also have a list of great referral partners, like Perth and Kinross Foodbank and HomeStart.

Why is this important to our local community? 

Environment and Fast Fashion - Approximately only 20% of all worldwide textiles used are recycled and the UK sends 350,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill each year. By passing on high quality pre-loved clothing and redistributing it to families who will continue to utilise it, we ensure clothes are being used to the end of their life. We know children grow quickly, and their clothes are often grown out of before the clothing is unwearable (although some uniform won’t survive the first term back!). 

Poverty - We know that 1 in 3 households in Perth and Kinross are classed as struggling financially. As the Cost of Living crisis continues, this is unfortunately only expected to continue.  2600 children in Perth and Kinross are classed as living in very deep poverty. The Perth City locality has the highest number of children living in relative poverty. feedback from our service users highlights that our service allows them to redirect their household budget to urgent bills and other unavoidable expenses, with 67% of feedback participants stating receiving our free clothing allowed them to re-prioritise their financial needs and 78% saying it reduced their stress. What more could we ask for?

By redistributing School Uniform, we can ensure all children can return to school feeling positive and matching their peers. How children feel in their clothes will have a dramatic impact on their school experience, their ability to learn and improve their future prospects. We know there is enough pre-loved clothing to support our local children to engage and build a bright and successful future!

How do we know this is something our community wants and needs?

2024 will be our third year running our Back to School Pack. In 2021 we provided 152 packs, in 2022 - 340 and in 2023 we reached our 400 application limit before the school holidays had ended. 

We know we will continue to watch our application numbers skyrocket as poverty in our local population continues to increase, and as awareness of the impact on our environment that clothing purchases continues to be focussed on in schools and by us.

In 2024 in order to continue to meet the needs of our community we need staff who can work alongside our tireless, amazing, volunteers to organise donations, make up packs and deliver them to our local children in time for them to go back to school in August. 

SO IF YOU THINK THAT...

- All children should have access to high quality school uniform?

- We should protect our environment and make positive pre-loved clothing choices? 

- By making little changes to our own lifestyle to support others we can make big changes for the future of our children?

Then please support us by voting for our Back to School Pack project.  Thank you.

Team Social Flock

Community, Clothing, Climate

Greener Glenfarg is an informal organisation, formed in February 2023 with the aim of informing and supporting Glenfarg to become a greener community. Our activities are designed to increase awareness of the climate crisis and provide verified information on the ways an individual can help to tackle climate change.

We looked at what issues were already being addressed in the village, such as the Community Transport initiative, identified gaps, asked the residents what extra could be done and set about putting plans into action.

In the last nine months we have arranged a trip to the V&A plastics exhibition, held two cinema events on the climate crisis, organised clothes swaps and tool shares, carried out litter picking, visited rewilding and flood mitigation projects, and held a Sustainable Transport workshop which led to the creation of the village's e-bike loan scheme "Freewheelers". These free events have been funded through the Community Council's access to windfarm funds.

We are now seeking funding to support our activities in early 2024. These will include an Energy Fair, cinema events, clothes swaps, tool shares and a talk /discussion led by an applied environmentalist with knowledge of the Binn Eco Park. We have just started a Glenfarg Grow Club to share skills, seeds and produce. The first meeting was so successful, with a room full of participants, that we are now seeking funds to support this new club for its first year. All these activities will help us to be part of the work to tackle climate change, but will also assist individuals with the cost of living crisis, as they will -

• increase public awareness and engage our community in tackling climate change
• discourage purchasing and reduce waste by sharing items within the community
• inform residents on how to reduce energy consumption, make use of green energy and save on energy costs
• explore ways in which the community can move forward with the new recycling technologies and community energy projects
• explore possibilities for rewilding and flood mitigation

We would like to raise awareness and promote discussion about climate change through thought provoking film, lived experience and information sharing by delivering a monthly programme over the next year. This programme would include topics which relate to the criteria identified by the Green Living Fund.

In order to be able to do this in the current climate, with no barriers, we would like to make this programme available at little or no cost to participants.

To facilitate this we propose joining an organisation called Take One Action –

“Take One Action nurtures communal exploration of the stories, ideas and questions at the heart of positive social change. Through film screenings, conversation and enquiry, we bring people together to inspire a fairer, more sustainable and more fulfilling world, in Scotland and beyond our borders”

This enables us to access a film catalogue and screen 6 films in a year without a license.

After each screening we propose to have a discussion on the topic, have information available and refer participants to other organisation locally that they can contact to take action locally – or nationally if relevant.

We have piloted this idea with a film called Riverwoods  - at the end we asked if any of those attending were interested in volunteering for a local rewilding project to leave their contact details. We checked with the project organiser recently and they were delighted by the number of folks who volunteered to help them.

Crieff Community Gardeners are a constituted community group based in Crieff Community Garden. We have an active community food larder within the community garden which offers free surplus vegetables harvested from the garden together with surplus dry goods from Crieff Coop. The has been a great service for locals suffering from the effects of the cost of living crisis. They can discreetly take anything food they require on a daily basis.

Unfortunately we have suffered severe vandalism which means that our current shed hosting the food larder has been severely damaged and is no longer lockable. Vandals have kicked in the door and kicked the walls from the inside out. 

This is an essential service which we need to continue, but being unable to lock the shed, our volunteers can no longer do evening deliveries as we cannot leave the food unattended overnight for health and safety reasons. They are therefore having to do early morning deliveries on a daily basis which is causing a strain on our volunteers.

We require a new sturdy shed, together with mini polytunnels to asisst our veg growing and some new bulbs. 

Kinross-shire Climate Cafe is proposing to set up a Repair Cafe, video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvIvvJl09dg.

This initiative would be the first of its kind in Kinross-shire, based on the experience of the Repair Cafes in Crieff, Pitlochry and Aberfeldy.

Our aims:

- encourage local people to reduce waste through repair of their broken items with a positive outcome of waste reduction and mitigation of climate change,

- reduce living costs as it is usually more cost effective to repair a good quality old item than to buy a new one,

- develop community links and exchange of expertise in the practical setting of Repair Café,

- strengthen our community in climate change adaptation with a supportive popup climate café,

- provide a swap shop facility to further reduce living costs and promote sustainable fashion.

Kinross-shire Repair Cafe would be a community-led project run by Kinross-shire Climate Café volunteers. The events would take place on four different weekend days in 2024 from 11 – 3pm in the local town halls. The format of the Café would be informal: a walk-in café where people come and bring their broken items to be repaired. Clients would not pay for the repairs but would pay for parts and materials used. There are two possible locations that we envisage for the location to widen the area of provision: Kinross and Milnathort. But the Repair Café would also be providing repairs and working with a wider Kinross-shire community with the total population in excess of 11,000.

The events would be advertised through the local press, leaflet distribution at Kinross Farmers Markets, social media and Loch Leven Community Library. The project will support the local economy by involving small local businesses with repair expertise, links with the future Repairers have been made. It will create opportunities for people with skills currently out of employment or retired who are experts and craftsmen. The repair Café would involve 10 volunteers for each event, which amounts to 200 volunteer hours.

One of the aims of the project is to reduce the living costs as through repair you lower your spendings in the long term especially if items that are broken are of better quality. This helps to reduce the effect of inflation on your household budget.

Finally, as part of Repair Café we would also hold a swap shop to reduce textile waste and a pop-up climate café to have friendly chats on different aspects of climate change adaptation and how to cope with the climate change crisis.

Our congregation is carrying out a major refurbishment of the church sanctuary to create a new flexible space available for community use, with an Air Source Heat Pump heating installation to improve comfort levels in the building.

The current heating system is approx. 100 years old, lacks flexibility of control and is inefficient. Using renewable technology will improve energy efficiency, be environmentally friendly and be more versatile in its control.  The new space will allow larger community gatherings and activities to take place, with direct access created to our existing kitchen facilities.

The new flexible space will increase the capacity available to support the various Warm Space initiatives and Youth Drop In that we have started in the last year.  The building will be more accessible, less damaging to the environment and provide an improved public space for community use.

The community will benefit from our ongoing activities tackling social isolation and providing groups with a warm and comfortable place to meet.

Our proposal for this fund is to investigate and research the feasibility of setting up and establishing a community Cycle Crieff Cargo bike delivery service! 

The easiest way to describe how we want operate is – A do anything local delivery service easily accessed using cargo bikes and helping reduce vehicle use.  Run by locals helping visitors and locals to use their community services and facilities. Pay what you can afford!!

Cycle Crieff Cargo!

How It Works

1. You call, email or contact us via the website and let us know what you need picked up and delivered, where it needs to go and by when.

2. We will confirm the details and price with you. If cost is an issue, please offer what you can currently afford!

3. Once all agreed, we will come and collect on our delivery bike.

4. Once we deliver your items, you will receive a confirmation message that it has been delivered safely.

Earlier in 2023 we ran 6 sessions with local people showing them how to plant, nurture and grow their own fruit and vegetables and would like to repeast that again in 2024 to extend the reach and knowledge. The project provided the containers, compost and seeds and participants came along each week to learn how to plant their own which they took away to look after at home, complete the growing to fruition and ultimately enjoy the fruits of their labours! Costs cover all of the items for 20 people:

Compost & Growbags  - £250

Equipment (planters, potato bags, canes and sundries like gloves, twine etc) - £200

Seeds &Plants - £170

Admin £60

Total £680

Crieff In Leaf has operated as a successful environmental group which will be celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2024.  The group is comprised purely of volunteers who  enhance the environment of this historic tourist centre.  Their operating base is at Alichmore Road, where there is  presently a limited resource for composting.  The group are required to purchase  compost which is costly in terms of monetary value and environmental impact.  Given their environmental credentials and conscience, they use peat free compost which commands a higher price/cost.  Whilst they endeavour to compost some of the downtakings, it has been necessary to make up to 4 trips per week to the Crieff Recycling Centre on Broich Road, using  their Great Wall Stead vehicle which has a relatively high  emission rating of 200 g /km.  The distance from Crieff to the recycling centre is approximately 3km.  The distance fron Crieff to the Alichmore Road site is significatly less.  The needs of the group are to relocate  all composting to the Alichmore site and to become self sufficient in compost.  There is also a drive to more sustainable planting and to use the current polytunnels to overwinter plants etc; both  polytunnels  require re skinning. 

Should this application be successful, this will allow the group to purchase the following

4 x 189 litre rotating composting bins 

1 x Hyundai Chipper/Shredder 

4 x Standard Composting Bins 

Reskinning of Polytunnels and Associated Sundries