Donate a Gift

The Connection's laundry washes people's clothes, so they can keep items which are special to them in clean condition

Thank you very much for thinking of The Connection for your donation of gifts-in-kind.

When donating a gift, please ensure that it is in new / like-new condition and email info@cstm.org.uk when you have completed your collection and are ready to donate. If you are thinking of donating a large numbers of items, please get in touch before you start your collection so that we can confirm whether we have space.

If you are donating Christmas presents, please ensure these are new, and delivered to our centre in advance of Thursday 19th December. Thank you.

The Connection has expanded our range of services that help homeless people to recover from homelessness and move on to a brighter future. As a result, there is now less storage space for gifts-in-kind. This means that, unfortunately, we are only able to accept a very limited range of donations – so please do not donate anything that is not on the list below!

We are most in need of…

  • Christmas presents

    • Belts
    New jumpers
    New t-shirts
    For men’s: Lynx gift sets, aftershave
    For women’s: purses, handbags
    Wallets
    Colouring book with colour pens
    Notebook and diary
    Earphones and phone chargers
    Large boxes of chocolates/biscuits
    Socks
    Watches
    Retail vouchers:
    These give our clients the choice and control to buy the items that they really want and need. The best vouchers to donate are Primark / Boots / Tesco / Argos in denominations of £5 and £10.

  • Moving In Packs

    • When our clients move into their new accommodation, they will be starting with nothing. Please help by donating Essential Starter Packs, with items including kitchen essentials like cutlery, crockery and pots/pans, pillow and duvet sets, bedding, and other household essentials.

  • Laptops and Monitors

    • Maximum of three years old, with at least 4 gigabytes of RAM, and running Windows 10.

  • Memory Sticks

    • For our clients to save their work and transfer large amounts of electronic data.

  • Keyboards
  • Hard drives
  • Computer mice
  • Headphones and universal phone chargers
  • Winter clothes

    • As temperatures drop, we need to keep our clients warm and safe.

  • Coats/Padded jackets
  • Jumpers
  • Scarves
  • Hats
  • Gloves
  • Belts

    • When attending an interview, a belt can be vital to look the part! Men’s black belts in small sizes – mostly 32 and 34 – are needed by our Employment & Training service.

  • Black shirts and black ties
  • Tracksuit bottoms and tops (all sizes men and women)
  • Trainers ( men and women- all sizes good condition)
  • Work boots

    • with steel toes.

  • Men’s trainers – sizes 7-14
  • Underwear (pants and bras) and socks – new only please!
  • Towels (new)
  • Dressing gowns (new)
  • Toiletries

    • Especially:
    Deodorant
    Razors
    Toothpaste
    Toothbrushes
    Shaving foam
    Body moisturiser

  • Fresh Fruit

    • We spend around £5,000 a year on fresh fruit. It is important to keep our clients healthy, and fruits contain important vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals. They also contain fibre. These lower the risk of many health problems. You can safeguard people’s health by regularly donating fresh fruit to be given out in the centre.
    We need 60 pieces of fruit every single day. Bananas are most popular, followed by oranges and apples.

  • Tea & Coffee

    • We are in constant need of donations of tea and coffee in large volumes! A cup of tea or coffee is comforting, warming and energising. Keep our clients going by regularly donating tea and coffee.

  • Containers

    • We are also always looking to increase our sustainability! Please donate reusable water bottles, and takeaway reusable coffee cups.

  • Dried Goods

    • Help to keep our kitchen cupboard stocked by donating:

    1. sugar
    2. pasta (penne in particular)
    3. baked beans
    4. tinned tomatoes
    5. tinned tuna
    6. tinned chickpeas
    7. tinned kidney beans

Thank you for supporting homeless people.

If you have other items to donate that are not on the list above, there are many other charities that are also helping homeless people – you could donate to:
Crisis
Shelter
St Mungo’s
Salvation Army

If we receive items which our clients cannot use, or our storage facilities become too full, we may sell donations in order to raise money for the centre. If items do not sell, we will recycle these or donate them to one of the charities named above.