A COMMUNITY furniture shop is helping vulnerable adults and the unemployed to gain retail experience.
Crest Community Store in Mostyn Broadway, Llandudno, supports 15 adults with learning disabilities a week, by offering retail work placements. The town centre shop also offers work placements to up to four unemployed individuals a week.
Social enterprise Crest Co-operative works to save furniture, electricals and textiles from landfill and resell them to benefit the Conwy community. Crest’s community shops are situated in Llandudno, Colwyn Bay and Llandudno Junction.
So far this year social enterprise Crest Co-operative has saved 34 tonnes of furniture and electricals from landfill, by working with the local authority and Conwy housing associations to collect and reuse unwanted bulky household items. Crest Co-operative has been working with housing association Cartrefi Conwy for more than 5 years, to reuse household items to benefit the community.
Crest Co-operative runs an electrical reuse centre in Mochdre, where a team of engineers test and refurbish electricals. The appliances are then sold to the Conwy community at low prices.
Daniel Evans, Area Retail Manager for Crest Co-operative, said: “It is fantastic to have so much diversity in the workforce. It makes my job really interesting and really rewarding.
“Our team of adults with learning disabilities work on the tills, prepare clothes and assist with the merchandising of the shop. The unemployed clients that come to us gain skills and knowledge and we help them to re-enter the workplace and have a better future.
“The feedback from our team is great and they enjoy working here. Some of the unemployed service users who have come to us, have asked if they can volunteer at events, as they want to give back to Crest, which is fantastic,” he added.
Crest Co-operative also collects textiles and unwanted clothing from residents across the Conwy county in bright purple recycling bags, on behalf of the local authority. Purple and blue textile banks are situated at 28 sites, throughout the county.
Crest Co-operative offer free collections of fit for re-use furniture. The social enterprise also collect electrical items from homes across Conwy. To book a collection call 01492 596 783.