With many people wishing to live a more sustainable life, there’s been a growth in voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations working to waste less and reuse, repair and recycle more.

We want to connect with organisations who reuse items, from furniture and household goods to clothing, IT equipment and bicycles.

The Community Furniture Stores (Ryedale) and FRADE have asked us to help them develop a North Yorkshire collective of organisations interested in reuse.

Following a successful, initial meeting, we are now looking at how to develop this network for the benefit of groups involved or interested in reuse.

We’re excited to hear from organisations interested in being part of the collective to bring issues such as funding and partnership working to the fore.

At this meeting, we welcome your perspective on making meaningful connections, targeting support and focussing actions.

We will be inviting specialist speakers from the sector to share their knowledge and give an overview of current challenges and potential opportunities.

The aims of the meeting are to:

• Set up regular meetings to share news, information and knowledge
• To encourage joined up approaches to reuse throughout North Yorkshire and to work in a spirit of collaboration not competition
• Facilitate conversations about potential partnership working and a forum for opportunities to be shared and discussed
• Build connections with other local organisations to strengthen resilience in the sector.