Project Co-ordinator Amy shares the story of how she recruited a team of volunteers, built a network of community partners and donation points and is always raising awareness of The Hygiene Bank Portsmouth.
Amy works at a community centre in Portsmouth, where they have been running a scheme providing hygiene products for visitors, and having previously worked at Boots, she was aware of our partnership. She told us “I knew there were lots of people across our community who have to face the stigma of hygiene poverty. I wanted to provide the same support for the wider community.”
With these thoughts in mind, she decided to start The Hygiene Bank Portsmouth in 2024. There’s excitement in the air – the first volunteers are onboard the word is starting to get around. Amy goes on to say “local businesses have already been really generous including local branches of Boots and Tesco – and smaller independent businesses too. We’ve also had individuals dropping off donations after Christmas.”
Amy gave us a glimpse into the day in the life of a project co-ordinator. “It’s really varied – it can be anything from reaching out to potential community and collection partners, picking up donations from collection partners and delivering them to our community partners. Raising awareness of The Hygiene Bank Portsmouth is especially important as we’ve only recently set up – so I might spend time creating content for social media or designing posters to distribute in the community. I work with a couple of volunteers so I also spend time chatting to them and organising their help with everything.”
The work that the team are doing in Portsmouth is vital – the Portsmouth Council Public Health Annual Report 2023 tells us that “people of all ages are affected but in Portsmouth, nearly a quarter of children live in families with income that is below 60% of the median income, with estimates suggesting nearly 1 in 3 children were living in poverty in Portsmouth in 2021/22.”
Amy adds to this by saying “It’s heartbreaking to know that there are people living in our city who have to choose between hygiene products and food, or who feel ashamed because they don’t feel they can keep their home and family clean.”
Despite the project being so young, the team are already making inroads and supporting local people. Amy says “We have already made deliveries to local food larders. It was really satisfying making our first delivery – knowing the products that local businesses and individuals had donated were going to help other people in our community.”
The work that the team is doing has not gone unnoticed and the Community Partners of The Hygiene Bank Portsmouth “have been really grateful – we had a couple of large drop offs just before Christmas to pantries where they had very limited hygiene products available. It made such a difference to their everyday routines, uplifting the community”.
We asked Amy what she’d say to others considering setting up a local project and she said “ I would encourage people to do it – I was worried about how much time I would have as I also work, but you can get other volunteers on board to help you out – they will have different skills and contacts in the community so that has been great working with other volunteers. It did seem a bit daunting at first, but I’ve had support from the central team at The Hygiene Bank and I have built up from nothing to already making donations to food banks and community centres”.
Congratulations Amy and team, you’re doing a brilliant job and we’re looking forward to hearing more about what you get up to!
If Amy’s story has inspired you to want to support the work of The Hygiene Bank, you can do so here, or how about getting involved by volunteering?
