Building Resilience And Knowledge through Education (BRAKE) is a 2 year personal development and training programme based in Coleraine aimed at supporting 16-25 year olds to get back into training or employment. There are 11 young people participating in the current intake and they decided they wanted to carry out an environmental project. After consulting with the Council’s Environmental Resource Officer, the young people decided to look at fashion and in particular their attitudes and habits but particularly the role of young people in the charity retail sector and how this sector caters for or appeals to young people.

We have held two workshops with the participants to introduce the topic of fast fashion, its impacts and their potential to make positive changes in regards to fashion consumption. This was followed by meetings with our charity shop partner, Age Concern who have graciously allowed us to entirely take over their shop for one Saturday. We will be working alongside staff and volunteers of Age Concern and in a fascinating twist we will also be working alongside a group of people with early onset dementia who will be providing workshops on clothing repair and upcycling.

In advance of 23rd November the young people have designed a logo, allocated roles such as stock generation, marketing and music, worked with staff in Age Concern around the logistics of clearing the shop the day before, sorting donations and redesigning the shop to appeal to their age group. They are looking at PR in advance and on the day and alongside the shop, we are taking over an adjacent space where there will be activities for children, refreshments and the clothing workshops. We will also be providing information to each visitor on how clothing can be more sustainable, in particular how we change the way we look after our clothes. We have access to two large shop fronts which will also become promotional and educational opportunities for this project.