A not-for-profit enterprise in Saltburn that helps people to furnish their homes more affordably has been given a refurb of its own.
Re:Furnish – which is run by housing provider Coast & Country – gives old and unwanted furniture a new lease of life. Now its premises have received a makeover, thanks to a team of volunteers from developer Galliford Try Partnerships North.
The team of ten re-painted the warehouse doors and garage walls, re-stained the external fences, built and installed window boxes and tackled some weeding and general outside tidying.
Tracy O’Neill, Head of Community Investment at Coast & Country, said: “We thought we’d let our experts stick to the furniture and let the building professionals look after the maintenance tasks!
“At Re:Furnish we re-upholster, re-paint, clean and generally spruce up all of our donated goods, making something really unique and special in the process. Alongside this, we offer work experience and training opportunities to people looking to develop their skills, build their CV and ultimately find work.
“We manage and let more than 10,000 homes and Re:Furnish offers an exceptional resource for our tenants and the wider community. We are delighted that the Galliford team volunteered its help.”
Coast & Country is also working in partnership with Galliford Try and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council on a £24 million project which will create modern sustainable homes for older people and those with special learning requirements in the local area.
The initiative has received a £5 million grant from the Homes and Communities Agency and will see developments in Brotton, Guisborough, Ormesby, Loftus and Redcar. In total 236 bedrooms and a host of additional support facilities will be delivered.
Debra Phillips, Employment and Skills Manager with Galliford Try Partnerships North, said: “Part of our company policy is to offer our employees time off work to volunteer in the communities in which we are building. It was great to be able to support Re:Furnish, allowing them more time to produce unique, stylish and high quality restored furniture for people of Redcar and Cleveland to enjoy.”