With love and care, each button, zip, and press stud on the baby rompers are checked. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and the community of volunteers at Roundabout Canberra is trying to go a step further. They want to ensure that every child who needs a bit of extra help, receives it.
Roundabout Canberra is a not-for-profit community-focused organisation that passes on essential baby and children’s items to families in need around the Canberra region. With dignity and environmentalism etched into their practices, the items are bundled together like a gift and passed on to one of the 90 services they work with to be delivered to families in need.
Kicking off in 2018, they helped 350 in their first year. Last year, that number skyrocketed to 2,039, and this year they are hoping to reach 3,000.
Founder and CEO Hannah Andrevski says there are definitely some families they have been helping for several years as they encourage services to make multiple orders if a family’s needs change. She says kids grow, and the organisation is there to help those who need it.
“About one third are homeless or experiencing housing issues, about a quarter are experiencing domestic violence, and half of them are single mums,” she says.
Hannah founded the organisation while on maternity leave with her second child. Knowing that she had lovely items her children had outgrown which still had a lot of life in them, she set out to find somewhere to take them. The local women’s shelter could only take so much, and she didn’t want to just take them to an op shop. She liked the idea of knowing they would go to someone who was struggling.
“I really wanted to be able to help people in my community who weren’t in the same position as me. At the time, there was sort of no easy way to pass on my second-hand goods,” she says.
Wanting to find out more about what was available around Canberra, Hannah took to everyone’s go-to font of knowledge, google. When the results were less than desirable, she broadened the search and found organisations helping families in Sydney, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast.
“Basically, their model was to take donations and second-hand baby and children’s items and to make sure they are in beautiful condition and to work with social services and community organisations to pass things on to families that need them,” she says.
Together with four women from her social network, Hannah started laying the foundation for the charity. Originally thinking they would be able to operate out of her apartment in Queanbeyan and store items at her husband’s business, luckily, a different opportunity came through Facebook. The Eastlake Group wanted to offer a space to a local charity, and even though they hadn’t finished finalising the legal framework, the group held the space until everything was above board. Roundabout Canberra moved into Sports Club Kaleen and got to work.
“The board were all in there scrubbing prams, sorting clothes; we were definitely not your traditional board and not what we have now, which is a much more strategic high-level board.”
Hannah says the social media platform was also one of the driving forces behind the growth of the organisation, especially in those early days. She knew from doing her own research that a lot of people were facing a similar dilemma of where to take their second-hand baby items, seeing numerous posts asking the same question.
“We did particular days where people came and dropped off their donation and the response was quite incredible actually, it kind of just spread word of mouth to other people.”
Her baby has grown into a five-year-old while the charity has grown into a full-blown operation. After two years in the small but well-used space, they moved to their new home in the Holt Community Hub. They are now open for donations for a select number of hours on Monday, and Wednesday to Saturday, where they have a team of volunteers accepting and sorting second-hand baby and children’s items.
Once the donations are inside the facility, some of their 250 volunteers will go through and select what they can pass on to a family in need. Every item that comes through the doors is checked for safety and quality; anything that can be restored receives a wash and repairs. They carefully consider the needs of potential families, as well as understanding families come from all kinds of different backgrounds, beliefs, and structures. Items that don’t meet their standard or might upset or cause offence in certain dynamics are passed onto different organisations.
Compassion for the community is evident in every choice that is made by the organisation. Anything that references loving a gendered parent, or a religious holiday is passed on. They always ensure nothing with camo print makes it into any of the orders, as they don’t want to trigger or upset people who may come from war-torn countries.
“We don’t pass on anything with the Australian flag or references to Australia Day. One in five of the families we help are First Nation people and that is just out of respect to them.”
Roundabout Canberra has refined the list of what doesn’t make the cut over time; as they grew, they realised they don’t know who will receive what. They pack their boxes as the supplies come in and label them appropriately; one box could be full of clothes for a 12-month-old girl, or a five-year-old boy. They think it is best to ensure everything is neutral and non-offensive.
“That stuff all goes to Vinnie’s cause that is lovely for someone who wants to make a choice to purchase those things from a Vinnie’s store.”
Roundabout has a strong focus on safety, only passing on cots, prams, and car seats that meet Australian standards. One of the volunteers tests the equipment against the legal safety requirements, as well as some additional ones Roundabout believes are important. If it can be repaired to meet the standard it will be; if not, it is one of the few things that will be sent to landfill. Even then they try to get creative to reduce the amount they send. For example, one of their volunteers created shelving dividers from cots that didn’t pass the test.
The only electronic devices they accept are closed circuit breast pumps, which are tagged and tested by an electrician before being gifted. With items that may be seen as controversial or have a slight safety question mark on them, they err on the side of caution. They are also aware that many people who need their help don’t have a lot of space so they try to offer compact toys no bigger than 40cm high or wide.
With the soft goods that can’t be passed on to one of their families or to a charity to sell, they try and make the most out of them. Linen with rips or stains that can’t be removed are transformed into brightly coloured book, toiletry, or toy bags, or they are sent to wildlife organisations. Clothes that can’t be passed are given to Koomarri, a local organisation for people with disabilities, who come each week to collect unusable clothes to be turned into rags.
“We try and get very creative so that we can really reduce the stuff that ends up in the bin,” Hannah says.
Their distribution method means they don’t have any direct contact with the families they help. Everything comes through electronically and is arranged by a service the family is already connected with. Hannah says dignity is important to them, and they don’t want families to have to come and relay their story when it can be hard to ask for help in the first place.
“Also, because we believe if families need things for their children, they probably need other things in terms of support that we are not in a position to provide. So, we think it is really important that they are connected in with a service,” she explains.
The service tells them some basic and non-identifying information about the family such as their circumstances, a rough location, and the age and gender of the children. This information helps them better understand the community they are helping and for when they apply for funding grants.
“We know that it might be a domestic violence situation, it might be social isolation, they might be migrants or refugees, those are the types of tick boxes we have on there.”
Hannah says something they’ve heard a lot lately, echoes of what the country is feeling, about the rising cost of living, with countless stories of families having to choose between buying warm clothes and bedding for their children or buying other basics like petrol and food.
“By getting this stuff from us it means that they can redirect the small amount of money they have for the other essentials,” she says.
The grants Roundabout Canberra receives cover the recyclable boxes items are delivered in; not only is cardboard more environmentally friendly, it also made for a nicer presentation for the families. All the items inside have been donated.
“Part of that dignity and presentation thing, you could pop it in an old [reusable plastic shopping] bag or a nappy box which we used to use sometimes but we want it to be like a gift.”
Some of the volunteers have been helping Roundabout since its formation; Hannah says some come a few times a year, and some come every week. Either way, their presence is valued and appreciated. Each morning, everyone stops for a tea break to catch up over a biscuit or two.
“We have really built a community with our volunteers as well and I think it means a lot. Some people come here and want to stand in a corner and do some sorting and not talk to anyone but for others, it means a lot to come here and connect with people,” she says.
Hannah is hoping to extend Roundabout’s reach as services between Sydney and Canberra are scarce; they have helped families in Braidwood, Bungendore, Cooma, Goulburn, Harden and on the NSW South Coast.
“I know we will keep growing because there is a lot more need out there that we haven’t yet met,” she says.
To find out more about Roundabout Canberra or how you can help, head to roundaboutcanberra.org
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