And, the project that has been running for 10 years at Greatness Lane, Sevenoaks, is selling items that are surplus to the needs of local residents on the internet auction website eBay.
West Kent Extra is the community development arm of the West Kent Housing Association, and set up its Furniture Project to provide low-cost furniture and household goods for tenants who might otherwise have been unable to afford them.
It now gains recycling credits from Sevenoaks district council to support its work in diverting items from landfill, and brought in £45,000 income for WKE in 2006.
“High tech”
The new “high tech” strategy for refurbishing and selling hard-to-sell items was the brainchild of the WKE managing director Eamonn Dillon.
Mr Dillon explained: “A colleague decided to try to sell a couple of items that had been in the warehouse for a long while by putting them on eBay using his wife's account. All the items were snapped up in a week and sold for a good price, so now we have our own account – and a worldwide marketplace.”
The carpentry project means new pieces of furniture and toys can be made from recycled wood and salvaged furniture, as well as allowing Mr Jones to restore items of furniture that have not stood the test of time.
The charity is also hoping that in future their new carpenter could provide apprenticeship training for young workers, fitting in with the group's work offering training opportunities for those who need more support than might otherwise be available in the commercial sector.
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