Thread Together Clothing Hub to launch in Brisbane
News
A permanent referral-only clothing hub will open at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Indooroopilly this week to give people access to brand new clothing in a safe and supportive environment. The official launch will take place tomorrow, Thursday 20 October during Anti-Poverty Week from 10am
A permanent referral-only clothing hub will open at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Indooroopilly this week to give people access to brand new clothing in a safe and supportive environment.
The Thread Together clothing hub will be a place of connection, where people who are doing it tough can take time to choose clothing they love and enjoy the option of warm conversation and a good cup of coffee or tea in a welcoming space.
The official launch will take place tomorrow, Thursday 20 October during Anti-Poverty Week from 10am with special dignitaries attending, including Uncle Steve Coghill, Local Member Michael Berkman, the Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, former Governor-General of Australia Dame Quentin Bryce and Anglicare Southern Queensland’s Executive Director Sue Cooke.
Thread Together is a global-first, dedicated to taking excess new clothing from manufacturers and designers and redistributing it to vulnerable people within the community at no cost to the recipient.
Volunteer Coordinator Kate Littmann-Kelly said that the new clothing hub will offer an even more dignified and empowering experience for people who are doing it tough.
“We’re very excited to open the clothing hub at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, as it will provide an extra layer of dignity and choice to people in need,” Ms Littmann-Kelly said.
“They can really enter something that very much looks like a retail environment and it’s a lovely time to be able to come and choose the clothes that you like, go and try it on in a dressing room, have a look at it in front of a mirror and take it away in a beautiful bag.”
Thread Together Volunteer Coordinator Kate Littmann-Kelly with one of the beautiful dresses that is available at the new clothing hub, which is launching on Thursday 20 October 2022 at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Indooroopilly (Photo: Anglicare Southern Queensland)
Thread Together has grown in Queensland over the past two years. The ‘mobile wardrobe in a van’ took off at the height of the first COVID-19 wave in November 2020 and now services more than 30 Anglicare and other sites across Greater Brisbane and Ipswich.
It has assisted more than 3,000 people in the community. The Thread Together van is sponsored by Bendon Lingerie and is supported and run by Anglicare Southern Queensland and St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Indooroopilly.
Ms Littmann-Kelly said the van will continue to service the community and will play a crucial role in addition to the new clothing hub.
“The hub will allow us to provide more children’s clothing, which will assist parents and families in need. There will be a greater array of clothing that people can choose from,” she said.
Anglicare Southern Queensland’s Executive Director Sue Cooke said it was no coincidence that the launch of the new hub took place during Anti-Poverty Week.
“Anglicare staff see every day the challenges faced by the 1 in 8 Queenslanders who live in poverty, and we understand that disadvantage isn’t just about material deprivation. The Brotherhood of St Laurence called this ‘the lived experience of being treated as less-than’,” Mrs Cooke said.
“As well as meeting material needs, putting Anglicare’s mission and values into practice means acknowledging the dignity and uniqueness of the individual, and listening to people’s stories with respect and compassion.
“Our partnership with Thread Together and St Andrew’s was therefore a natural fit. Thread Together addresses a basic human need in a way that ensures dignity, respect, and the ability to make personal choices, reflecting the unique needs and personality of the people they support.”
The clothing hub will be a referral-only service and will run Monday and Wednesday mornings from 10am until 1pm at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Indooroopilly.
“People in need of clothing can ask their support organisation to make a referral, and then we’ll arrange an appointment at the hub,” Ms Littmann-Kelly said.
“If people aren’t connected to an agency, we can also help provide those links, so that people have the support they need. We don’t want the hub just to be about handing out clothing.”
Mrs Cooke thanked a number of people for their assistance over the last two years.
“I’d like to say a special thank you to our partners Thread Together, and to the St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Reverend Sue Grimmett and the wonderful parish volunteers who are so much at the heart of this initiative,” Mrs Cooke said.
“Together, as a three-way collaboration, we treasure a partnership where each of us can put our mission and values into action and contribute our strengths to make a whole that is greater than its parts.”
There will be an array of clothes people can choose from at the Thread Together Clothing Hub (Photo: Anglicare Southern Queensland)
