Recycle and renew program connects
Community Gippsland Employment Skills Training
Using furniture restoration to engage people in the community, the Recycle and Renew program is aimed at isolated people who are not engaged in work or training.
With furniture restoration as its core activity, the program sets about building the skills of participants and increasing their engagement with the community.
The motto for the program is ‘feel your way’, with participants being required to make decisions on the piece of furniture they are restoring from beginning to end.
The program run as a partnership between four community organisations, has helped participants become more connected to their community, united by their desire to raise funds for charity through selling the furniture they have restored.
By the end of the program most participants said that they now felt connected to their community, compared to less than half feeling connected at the beginning of the program.
The local economy and environment have also benefited from the program through the sale of the restored furniture by St Vincent de Paul – furniture that would otherwise have sat at the local tip.