A new charity initiative launched in Birmingham today to donate more than 750,000 surplus goods to 75,000 families in need over the next 12 months.
The region’s first Multibank is led by BVSC (Birmingham Voluntary Service Council) with support from former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Amazon, and the Mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker.
The West Midlands Multibank takes surplus products donated by businesses and gives them to families in need across the region. From clothing, crockery, and cleaning products, to toiletries, towels and toys, Multibanks put business surplus in the hands of those who need it most.
Co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon, Multibanks are community donation hubs led by a prominent local charity that provide brand-new items for social workers, teachers, charities and community groups to distribute to local families.
This is the sixth Multibank, an initiative which launched in 2022 and has donated more than 7 million goods to help over 600,000 families from Multibanks in Scotland, Greater Manchester, Wales, London, Tees Valley, and now the West Midlands. This year, families will receive more than a million orders from the Multibanks across the UK.
According to a report from BirminghamLive ‘Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency’, almost half (46%) of Birmingham’s children are growing up in poverty, up from 27% in 2015 and more than at any time since records began.
The report found that teachers and youth workers are frequently having to spend their own money to meet the basic needs of young people, while GPs and medics voiced their concerns about the mental and physical toll poverty is having on those impacted. One of the solutions proposed by the report was the creation of a Multibank in the region.
The West Midlands Multibank will be run by Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), building on the charity’s established work supporting children, young people and families across the region. BVSC aims to ensure no good product goes to waste, and no family goes without the essentials they need.
Community support organisations, schools and colleges, and charities in the West Midlands will now be able access the donated goods from the West Midlands Multibank including soap, toilet roll, household products, school kit and more.
