Neighbourhood Swap a success! or How to support community and environment despite the pandemic.

It is amazing how much can be achieved by a small group of determined people. And a good poster- art makes it real. Witness the concept to execution above of the great swap poster by the great artist Treya Beaulieu.

We have done many swaps over the years, every one has an added challenge? refinement? tweak? Our goal with these swaps is literally to swap clothes around from where they are no longer needed to clothe a new person, avoiding waste and keeping clothes in use. We are not interested in handouts (though if it can help people in need, all the better) but rather in each of us helping each other. We all have something to give and we all benefit from asking for help.

This swap structure kept that philosophy all the way through. It sprang from a concept hashed out by Leah Sanchez and I (Tanya Murdoch) because we want to keep having swaps and community building events in spite of a pandemic that makes our usual setup impossible. Also, our children outgrew their back to school cords sometime during the longest March break ever.

It took a month, from concept to execution. We had support spreading the word from local Councillor Josh Matlow and trustee Shelley Laskin as well as the Davisville School council. With a little more time and when it is slightly less weird we will have institutional support from local churches and can tie in swap shopping with the local shelter, so we could have  an adult swap as well- next time. Also, in my dream, more T-shirt bags and bunting and maybe locally made masks for sale as well. We want to support local artists and makers.

Here's how it works, if you want to reproduce (or get our help. We would love to partner and grow this idea)

• recruit willing neighbours. People with kids, with yards, people who put things out on the curb... ask for suggestions. The benefit, besides the karma, is that each host has first dibs on clothes as they come in, and probably know other kids that size who can take extras. Less clothes to redistribute after.
• you need at least 8 homes, 12 is better. Each home hosts a size, and the host is ideally someone SEEKING that size (eg, my 13 year old passed on his outgrown 9-12 clothes to another host, and we hosted boys size 13-16) so the clothes are more likely to find a good home.
• Hosts help: provide sanitizer, lay out the donations, run the site, pack it up. Organizer provides map, size signs, posters and (in our case) stylish and desirable up-cycled T-shirt bags. We asked swappers to buy and fill a bag for $5 or pay-what-you-can to cover costs, they could bring their own bag as well, and bags can be stuffed full.  we have tried free and it confuses people. And we do have costs so this helps.

It ended up being a one person organizer team, which has happened in the past and in this case, much more plausible. Shared responsibility meant ever hsot could clean up, the clothes are well sorted... when we had few donations at our 13-16 boys site, the host from 9-12 noticed some larger sizes in her donations and passed them on.

Some suggestions for next time (we are thinking Earth Week 2021):

• try to eliminate/augment the gender division (maybe have hosts nearby have more masculine/more feminine and gender neutral items)
• have email sign up lists for participants interested in future swaps (we usually do this)
• spread the word earlier, involve more institutions to bring more participation (more schools, religious institutions, BIAs)

Final feedback from this first annual back-to-school neighbour to neighbour clothing swap:

• all hosts willing to do it again
• passerby very interested, took maps, made donations
• easier for organizer (I took a nap instead of cleaning up for hours after)
• we made a lot more than expected! $192 Canadian dolleridoos
• all hosts went home with something (we got three jeans, pjs, and a nice button up shirt.)
  
• Women's clothing is going to new circles.
  
• We are finding homes for leftover clothes with local neighbours first, may save some items for future swap starter/workshops or T-shirt bags and then donate remains to the Salvation Army.