Community Chest

Community Chest Furniture Re-Use Charity was established in 1991 and is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee.  They collect donated furniture and household goods to deliver to people and households in need, within North East Lincolnshire and the surrounding area.

Community Chest has been successful in securing funding from a wide range of funders:  European Regional Development Fund; The Big Lottery CRED Programme, Fair Share Trust and Awards for All; Lloyds TSB Foundation; Nationwide Foundation; Hull City Venture through the LSC’s Learning in Deprived Communities Fund; Tudor Trust; and others as they become available.

Since Sheilagh Coulson was appointed Project Development Manager in September 2003, they have been in a period of change, growth and development as they seek innovative ways of generating income and becoming less grant dependent.

Community Chest has established a Training Workshop where members of the local community learn basic practical skills such as joinery, plumbing and decorating in a small, friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

They have also developed ReStore, where they sell quality pre-owned furniture and household goods direct to the local community.  People and households on benefit and low income are eligible for discount and pay just 30% of the ticket price of all goods they choose.  

“We enable people, especially first time tenants, to furnish their homes without getting into debt,” said Sheilagh.   “It is possible using Community Chest to furnish a home for £100, not including electrical goods.”

Support and Advice

Sheilagh met Emma Buttrick, Social Enterprise Administrator for Business Link Humber, at the Footsey 100 Event at Magna, Rotherham in October 2005.  She immediately saw how a Learning Grant could support Community Chest and its staff team through its development.

“We offer Learning Grants to pay for training and skill development and social enterprises use them in different ways,” said Emma.  “They can be used for anything from learning a basic skill, improving the quality of a service through to helping the organisation make important strategic changes.”

Community Chest was awarded two Learning Grants, the first enabled Sheilagh and the Customer Services Manager to attend the Furniture Re-Use Conference in December 2005.  This Conference proved an invaluable learning experience as Community Chest now shares best practice with furniture re-use groups from around the country, and is kept up to date with legislation and developments which directly affect their operations.

The Future

The second Learning Grant has supported their three ‘first line managers’ through the ILM2 Team Leaders training course. They are now developing their skills as managers as they become more responsible for the day-to-day operations. This releases Sheilagh’s time to concentrate on the more strategic issues of funding and development – a crucial role for any social enterprise.


Social Enterprise Humber is a Business Link Humber project sponsored by Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund which aims to develop a strong and financially sustainable Social Enterprise sector through the following objectives:

• Growing bigger, better, more sustainable and more effective individual social enterprises.
• Creating new social enterprises with a focus on sustainability and quality.
• Developing a bigger market environment for social enterprises, and raising the profile and capability of the sector to deliver high quality services for the private and public sectors.
• Stimulating partnership developments with all sectors, public, private and voluntary/community.
• Facilitating segmented network activity to encourage peer support, information exchange and informal learning.
• Raising the profile and quality of sustainable social enterprise support within the sub-region, and building capacity, skills and understanding within the support infrastructure.

For further information contact     
Emma Buttrick
        Social Enterprise Administrator
        Business Link Humber
        Tel 01724 291526
        Fax 01724 291511
        Mob 07795605228
        www.sehumber.co.uk