BRITAIN HAS A TOY PROBLEM

Whilst we as parents spent a staggering £3.3 billion on toys in the UK in 2018, children across the country have an average of 4 toys that have NEVER been played with – meaning thousands of toys are currently unused. 

In addition, 1 in 3 parents just in the North West admit to throwing away perfectly good toys – toys that could have been used for a lot longer than they had been.

Meanwhile, 52% of families in Greater Manchester are living in poverty and children are missing out on good quality toys because the prices just keep rising, making many unaffordable.

So what if there’s a way to provide great toys for children to play with, help parents to save money and save the planet from thousands of toys ending up in landfill?

We have the solution!

Welcome to our new and innovative service – That Toy Thing.

CHANGING THE WAY YOU PLAY 

Our idea is simple – we will take donations of pre-loved toys from parents and carers in Salford and Greater Manchester, spruce them up and hire them out to families at different subscription levels. 

For just £5 a month, parents will be able to borrow up to £20 worth of toys, £10 a month for £50 of toys, and £15 a month for £90 worth of toys. 

At the end of each month, they will be able to renew the same toys, or swap them for new ones. We will deliver the toys straight to parents doors, whilst also having collection points at local businesses across Greater Manchester. 

ACCESS TO GOOD QUALITY TOYS FOR EVERYONE

Through your support we can raise funds to pilot That Toy Thing, help up to 60 families to trial the service for free, in return for feedback. 

The funding will enable us to:

• Build a website to be the centre of our community
• Create a toy donation campaign
• Pay for stock, volunteers’ expenses, storage space, promotion and delivery costs
• Buy eco-friendly cleaning equipment to ensure the toys are cleaned before and between each use. 
• Run free 'Play days' in Salford and Manchester, encouraging parents and children to experience our resources and connect them with services in the local area such as other parent support, zero waste shops, community groups and activities they might be interested in

That Toy Thing will make a huge difference by:

• Providing families on low incomes the opportunity to enjoy good quality toys as well as families and children with special needs to access sensory resources
• Giving families wanting to be more eco-friendly a real alternative to ‘buying’ more toys that clutter up their houses. 
• Encouraging families to rethink their buying habits, and reuse more of what is already available in the community. 
• Building an online community through the website and social media so parents can see the life cycle of the toys being shared between them, such as who they have been played with before, what toys they would like to see and co-create the future of the project
• Creating a 'new normal' for children in Salford and Greater Manchester where throwing toys away is a thing of the past - instead being rewarded for giving their toys to others.
• Working with local schools to ensure any books or other items we get donated get passed on to families who need them. 
• Our service will create a sustainable and affordable network for generations to come, building community resilience and tackling inequality
• Providing employment and volunteer opportunities to local families

We anticipate the pilot will run for 6 months, and if successful, we will be able to open up our service to all families in Greater Manchester. 

We are based in Salford and work all over Greater Manchester, our mission is to help families play more sustainably, whilst saving money, reducing plastic waste and minimising clutter.

Our vision is to generate income for our parent social enterprise Visit from the Stork CIC, which already provides free services to parents across Salford & Greater Manchester, helping them deal with issues such as birth trauma, Post-natal depression and breastfeeding problems. 

If you’ve got this far – thank you! We hope you will consider supporting our project. If you'd like to find out more about our project - look out for our updates on this campaign plus follow us on Facebook or IG - @thattoything 

If you've got any questions or would like to be involved in the project, email us [email protected]