Freebay (FREE ITEMS ONLY)

Wickford, Billericay and surrounding areas

During the second lockdown, we set up a local community group initiative, a Facebook page called ‘Freebay Wickford and surrounding areas’ which now has 6,000+ members.

Its focus is for people to provide and share free items, saving them from going to landfill and helping not just those in need, but everyone in the community. It could be someone that’s cleared out their food cupboard and no longer wants the items to someone that has cleared out their child’s old toys and is looking to give them away.

We also hold request days twice a week, where people can request items such as a new hoover or a pot of white paint! It saves taking things to a charity shop when really, you drive around with it in your boot for six weeks beforehand, but it also saves taking a trip to the tip or putting it out for the bin men – one post to this group and it could be collected from your own doorstep and off it goes for a new lease of life!

We also use the group as a ‘community team’, for example, supporting furnishing a house for someone that was no longer omeless; similarly, we’ve supported a dear friend of mine who runs a registered charity in Southend, Stephens Place which provides the homeless with a home, as well as “mentoring, life coaching, gardening, cooking and other life skills such as self-care and raising self-esteem”. The group was able to source a pool table and accessories which will support the rehabilitation of these individuals.

The focus of the group is to help the community as a whole, not just “those that can’t afford it” and as a result of this group, build a community and create friendships –just by the phrase ‘one man’s junk is another man’s treasure’.