COVID-19 has caused both a massive increase in demand for Life's services and a strain on the charity's finances and people. Here's how you can help Life bounce back from COVID-19 and from lockdown.
Page last updated 13 November 2020.
#1: Help Life Retail
As the government lifts lockdown and lets shops open, our Retail stores need to hit the ground running and bring in income to Life.
1. Save your pre-loved items
- A dress, handbag, and necklace for £11? They could house a mum and baby for a day, giving them the skills they need to live independently.
- Asummer top, jeans, footwear, and handbag for £24? They could keep the helpline and online services going for an hour.
Any pre-loved items of yours can be turned into money to fuel Life’s services. Books, accessories, bric-a-brac, clothing, art, DVDs, rag – we can use anything.
2. Donate your pre-loved items to us safely
Donate to a Life shop, clothing bank, or clothing box.
We can only take your pre-loved items at our shops or clothing boxes once lockdown is lifted, so please only donate when the doors are open.
Our clothing banks are always open for donations.
3. Buy
Grab yourself a bargain – and help yourself bounce back from lockdown! – at a shop, or online at our Life eBay or Amazon accounts.
Where are you?
Click the buttons below to see a handy map and PDF showing where we are:
When are shops reopening?
As of 2 July, here’s the situation:
- In the week commencing 29 June: Derby Clothing, Derby Furniture, Breaston, Wolverhampton, and Nuneaton shops reopened
- In the week commencing 6 July: No shops will reopen
- In the week commencing 13 July: Blackpool, Rugby, Weymouth, and Kingstanding shops will reopen
- In the week commencing 20 July: Manchester, Eastleigh, and Gerrards Cross shops will reopen. If lockdown restrictions have eased enough, we hope to reopen the Belfast shop in this week as well
We’ll let you know about the Leicester shop once we have more info.
All shops will reopen at reduced hours (09:30-16:00 Monday to Saturday) except for Manchester and Weymouth, who’ll reopen 09:30-16:00, Monday to Sunday.
The map and the PDF also include telephone numbers so you can ring ahead to check that the shop is open.
How do I donate or buy safely?
We’ve taken every precaution to keep you safe in our shops. Watch Charlotte Cox, National Retail Manager, taking you through what we’ve done.
- You’ll find hand sanitiser on the shop entrance and exits
- All shops will enforce social distancing
- Your shop donations will be quarantined securely for 72 hours before being sold
- Changing rooms are closed
- You have a 14-day return policy
#2: Online shopping
a) Shop at Life online
Grab yourself a bargain online at our Life eBay or Amazon accounts.
You can also support Life by doing your online shopping – at no extra cost to you! Here’s how:
b) AmazonSmile
When you use AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of your spend to the charity of your choice – at no cost to yourself.
- Go to https://smile.amazon.co.uk and register “Life 2009” as the charity you support.
- Then, log in to Amazon through https://smile.amazon.co.uk. It’l take you to the same Amazon site, with access to the same products, prices, and services.
- Shop as you would normally, happy in the knowledge that Amazon now will donate 0.5% of your spend to Life.
c) Easy Fundraising
We’ve registered Life with EasyFundraising, which means over 4,000 shops and sites will now donate to Life for free every time you use EasyFundraising to shop with them. These donations will help so much, so please sign up to support us – it’s completely free and doesn’t take long.
Register here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/life/
#3: Do our NCFE Level 2 Counselling Course
Life’s counselling course trains potential volunteers for work on our Pregnancy Matters™ Online service, as well as anybody else who’d like to learn counselling skills. Learn more about the Online service, and its work during COVID-19, here.
Volunteering for Pregnancy Matters™ Online is a demanding but fulfilling role in a close-knit team of dedicated individuals. You can register your interest (with no obligation to continue) using this link.
Hayle. Cornwall is there a shop near please
Hi Joy - I'm afraid not. However, you can shop at Life's online shops. Links to those shops are at the top of this page: https://lifecharity.org.uk/show-our-shops
Thanks!
The Northampton Support group would like to donate items to the Rugby Life Shop. Getting the items to the shop is a problem for us, can a pick up from Northampton be arranged? A member of the group will collect additional items before the end of term if a pick up is possible.
where exactly is the shop in Manchester? thanks
Hi Lise - you can find contact details on lifecharity.org.uk/show-our-shops
Thanks!
There is not a Life Shop near me but I would like to donate money to support your work. How do I do this?
I aint got no cloves or brick abrack I don,t want at the moment but next time I order something on line I shell order from Amazon I have give as you live for Life
Do you have a Life shop in or near Liverpool?
Will you need extra volunteers to sort out the extra donations to charity shops when they reopen? I would be interested in giving some time to help near Nottingham.
I Would like to donate items to the Wolverhampton shop but parking a problem - please advise.
Very happy to help Life bounce back
Since lockdown, I always shop online with the Smile.Amazon account and have persuaded my husband to do the same as he does a lot of online shopping 🛍
Well done Life. Thanks for coming up with suggestions. I'm inspired to see what I might do . . and I didn't even KNOW there was a Life shop near me (Blackpool!). All the best with your bouncing back.
Ann H
Do you have a shop at Bristol?
Hi Martin, afraid not!
Mita, it's great you have baby clothes to donate! We're going to be issuing a re-opening schedule very soon. At the moment, it looks like Northenden shop will open on or soon after 20 July.