This is a short film shot last year at Crisis at Christmas, it explains what we do and why we do it.

Huge thanks to Hannah Bayman for filming, editing and doing everything else to make this film possible.

Where Can You Drop Off Donations?

Donations can be dropped off between the Monday 3rd November and Friday 12th December at most of the drop off points listed below, but some may finish earlier so please check with the drop off point prior to making your donation for example The Co-operative Stores will be taking donations until 5th December.

Please note Co-operative Stores will only start accepting donations from the 17th November.

We are asking for all donations to be dropped off as early as possible but at the latest by the 12th December as this will give us enough time to sort the donations prior to Christmas Day. 

In the past this has been a monumental task that we haven't left ourselves enough time to do so this year Crisis are looking for volunteers to get involved sorting the clothing throughout December. If you have a few hours to spare and want to get involved please contact Adrian Conway the Christmas Co-ordinator at Crisis on adrian.conway@crisis.org.uk 

The drop off points are listed below and where possible I have supplied links to their websites so you may check opening hours etc.

Newcastle City Centre

Crisis Skylight 

City House  

1 City Road

Newcastle 

NE1 2AF

Northumbria Students Union

2 Sandyford Road 

Newcastle upon Tyne 

NE1 8SB

Newcastle Civic Centre
Customer Service
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8QH

North Tyneside

Tantalizing Beauty Salon 

16 Ann Street 

Shiremoor 

NE27 0QR

*Accepting Donations until the 5th December.

T: @tantalizingNE

Whitley Bay Sea Cadets 

Bromley Avenue 

Whitley Bay 

NE25 8BF

T: @TSWhitley

Creative Up North 

12- 13 Northumberland Street

North Shields 

NE30 1DS

T: @CreativeUpNorth

Please note Creative Up North will be accepting Donations until the 1st December. 

Northumberland

Wansbeck Chiropractic Clinic - Ashington

196 Milburn Road 

Ashington 

NE63 0PH

Will be accepting donations up until the 5th December.

Treacle Wool Shop 

Off Bridge Street 

Chantry Place 

Morpeth 

NE61 1JF

T :@treaclewoolshop

Vallum Farm  
Bakery and Patisserie Shop

East Wallhouses 

Military Road 

Newcastle 

NE18 0LL

T: @vallumbakery

South Tyneside

Wansbeck Chiropractic Clinic - South Shields 

8 Coronation Street 

South Shields 

NE33 1AZ

Will be accepting donations up until the 5th December.

Sunderland

Cool Designs Ltd 

Unit 8 North Hylton Enterprise Park 

Hepworth Rd

Sunderland 

SR5 3JT

* Cool Designs Will be accepting donations until the 7th December.

De Niros Barbers 

Silkworth Lane

Silkworth Road

East Herrington 

Sunderland 

SR3 3PP

0191 5283649

*De Niros will be accepting donations until the 5th December.

County Durham

Lickety Split Creamery

13 North Terrace 

Seaham 

SR7 7EU

Co-operative Stores

The Co-operative Stores have very kindly offered 40 of their stores to be drop off points and they are also raising money for Crisis throughout December which is brilliant. 

The Co-operative Stores will be accepting donations from the 17th November until the 5th December.

Bedlington Station

Birtley

Blaydon

Blyth – Southend Avenue

Choppington

Cramlington (Petrol Station)

Crawcrook

Crawcrook (Petrol Station)

Cullercoats

Dunston

Fenham – Cedar Road

Gateshead - Allerdene

Gateshead – Beacon Lough

Gateshead – Fewster Square

Gosforth - Regents Farm

Gosforth – High Street

Gosforth Park (Petrol Station)

High Heaton – Newton Road

Low Fell

Newcastle - Market Street

Newcastle – West Road

New Deleval

North Shields – Cleveland Road

North Shields

Penshaw

Ponteland

Ryton – Parsons Drive

South Shields – Meldon Terrace

Stakeford

Sunderland - Castletown

Sunderland –Hylton Castle

Sunderland – North Moor

Sunniside

Tynemouth

Washington

Washington (Petrol Station) Parsons Road

Whickham – Oakfield Road

Whitley Bay – Park Avenue

Wideopen - Reno House

Wrekenton

What We Need

Below is a list of the types of items we need in order to make Winter Coats Amnesty a success and help the guests of Crisis at Christmas.

• Warm Winter Coats
• Hats 
• Scarves
• Gloves
• Jeans / Trousers
• T-shirts
• Sweatshirts
• Hoodies
• Shirts 
• Tracksuits
• Trainers / Sturdy Shoes
• (New) Socks
• (New) Underwear

All the guests at Crisis at Christmas are over 18 and are mostly single so we don't have the need for children's clothes. We have both male and female guests and they are aged between18 and 80, so we are looking for donations suitable for all ages.

We require the donations to be in good repair and to be clean please. We don't have to resources or the funding to have things cleaned or repaired so please think about this when donating.

The donations you give make a huge difference to the guests of Crisis and it goes without saying that we couldn't do this without your support!

Help Us To Help Others By Donating Your Unwanted Winter Clothing

Who We Are

The Winter Coat Amnesty was born in November 2011, as a result of a conversation between two friends who managed to galvanise and scramble some last minute support from their friends and colleagues from the local business community, and two became five! Now the Winter Coat Amnesty is up and running, we are back down to two, but our 2011 founding family are always close by, and on hand.

The reason for that very first conversation was as a result of a fleeting remark made by a Crisis member of staff to Andy – Crisis weren’t going to be sent any coats this year from HQ to distribute to the guests who use the Newcastle Crisis Centre when it opens over Christmas.

Crisis Skylight in Newcastle upon Tyne  is an education, training and employment centre for the homeless and vulnerably housed, located in the heart of Newcastle upon Tyne. As other homeless services close down for Christmas, Crisis open their doors on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and welcome guests who are homeless or vulnerably housed, in to the Centre.

Andy was already a regular Christmas at Crisis volunteer and appreciated how much the lack of a clothing department would impact on the regions homeless, vulnerable and isolated and so he set to work and as a team, we’ve never looked back. Andy met Claire whilst volunteering for Crisis before the inception of the Winter Coat Amnesty and they’ve been friends ever since, but they’d rather not dwell on how many years ago that was!

We are not Crisis, a charity or a constituted voluntary organisation – and we never have been. There have been just two of us since 2012, but our number occasionally fluctuates for a while, when we call on one of fellow founders to help us with something specific.The Winter Coat Amnesty does not profit (in fact, we don’t even have a bank account!) and every single piece of clothing is distributed to Crisis guests at Christmas, with any surplus stock donated to local charities who support local homeless and vulnerable people. We do it for free because we care and our volunteering at Crisis at Christmas enables us to see how much it benefits others. This is a campaign run by local people for local people which is one of the reasons  why we think it is so successful.

Previous Campaigns

Our first ever Winter Coat Amnesty in 2011 got off to a flying start. We had lots of support from the local media, but we basically ran the campaign using Facebook and Twitter. When local businesses heard about us, many offered to act as donation stations which meant we had a small army of willing businesses across the region, so people could drop off their unwanted, warm winter clothing. We were astounded  to have collected and gone on to distribute approximately 500 items of unwanted warm winter clothing to the regions homeless and vulnerable that year – not bad given we pulled it all together six weeks before Christmas!

Winter Coats Amnesty 2012

In 2012, the Winter Coat Amnesty turned in to a monster, albeit a friendly one! The number of businesses prepared to act as donation stations increased as did our workload, and at times we found ourselves trying to juggle our equally demanding full time jobs, with travelling around the corners of the region to pick up unwanted winter clothing and delivering them to Crisis in Newcastle City Centre . As ever, the local media were generous to us and as a result of everyone pulling together, the region’s homeless were rewarded with many thousands of items – it really was a sight to behold.

 2013 was even bigger, we received an unprecedented number of donations with 1000's of donations being received. As you can see from the pictures we had an unbelievable amount of clothes and again the clothes bank was really popular with all the guests.

 A small selection of our 2013 donations

So What About 2014?

We are ready with your help to go again for Christmas 2014. The number of people visiting Crisis at Christmas increases every year and we don't expect this to be any different this year.Again we need your help this year in order to help the guests of Crisis.

We have opened this page as it allows us to give you more information but we have a Facebook page and a Twitter account where we give regular updates, so if you use these platforms and haven't already head across and give us a LIKE or a FOLLOW. 

We are finalising the drop off points at the moment so will give you details in the near future but in the short term if you are having a tidy up of your wardrobe out to make space for your new winter purchases think Winter Coats Amnesty before you throw them out.