{"id":40133,"date":"2025-10-29T07:22:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/strabane-scheme-offers-helping-hand-to-parents\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T07:22:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:22:29","slug":"strabane-scheme-offers-helping-hand-to-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/strabane-scheme-offers-helping-hand-to-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Strabane scheme offers helping hand to parents"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Keiron Tourish<\/span>BBC News NI north west reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Health visitor Karen Brown said the project will provide “anything really that a parent is going to need”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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It’s not easy out there for families living through the cost-of-living crisis – and that’s why a new scheme in County Tyrone is offering free baby clothes in a bid to support people facing hardship.<\/p>\n

The project in Strabane, funded by the Department for Communities, will be available to any family with children up to five years old.<\/p>\n

It will also support people with nappies, baby and family toiletries for a nominal fee, but that can be waived in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n

Karen Brown, a health visitor with the Western Trust, said the HiVe Baby Hub and free clothing exchange aims to support families in “one of the most socio-economically deprived areas in the entire UK”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The scheme will operate from the Grass Roots centre on John Wesley Street in Strabane<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The project, which involves the Western Trust, the GP Federation and a local community project, will operate from the Grass Roots Centre on John Wesley Street.<\/p>\n

Families can be referred to the service through their health visitor, family nurse and social workers or even call into the centre themselves.<\/p>\n

The project also aims to reduce the environmental impact of clothing waste through recycling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What does the Strabane baby clothes scheme offer?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Families can be referred to the service through their health visitor, family nurse and social workers or even call into the centre themselves<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ms Brown, who came up with the idea, said she sees first-hand the needs of parents locally.<\/p>\n

“The cost-of-living crisis has hit an awful lot of families hard, so this is a great initiative where we can help.<\/p>\n

“Families who have that wee bit extra can also donate if they like.”<\/p>\n

To support struggling families, the project already operates a wellness caf\u00e9 and a social supermarket where people can purchase groceries at a discounted price if they are part of the membership scheme.<\/p>\n

It also offers help with a range of services from money management to learning how to cook and grow your own vegetables.<\/p>\n

Ms Brown said that as well as offering a free clothing exchange, it’s also a hygiene hub, which can “help with baby toiletries, nappies and anything really that a parent is going to need to look after their child”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The HiVe Baby Hub and free clothing exchange will be available to any family with children aged 0-5 years old<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ursula Doherty, from the Strabane Community Project, said people are struggling to meet the cost of baby hygiene products and clothes, and the exchange was a great initiative because it focuses on re-using and recycling.<\/p>\n

“We do live in a very throw-away society, so it’s a great project in order to take it from landfill,” she said.<\/p>\n

She added that people are going through real hardship.<\/p>\n

“More and more families are finding it hard to make ends meet – food, fuel and even baby items.<\/p>\n

“That’s right across the board. That’s people who are working and people who are on benefits. Everybody. <\/p>\n

“In an ironic way it has equalised us all because everybody is suffering, so it’s always about looking at new initiatives.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Deputy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It’s amazing to see the good work they’re doing here” – Deputy Mayor Niree McMorris <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Derry and Strabane Deputy Mayor Niree McMorris said it was an amazing initiative.<\/p>\n

“They have things like the clothes exchange, which is taking things out of landfill and putting them back into the community for re-use. <\/p>\n

“In the Baby Hub, young families can avail of nappies and hygiene products.<\/p>\n

“Everything you need to take care of your child. And also hygiene products for the mammy as well, so I think that’s really important. <\/p>\n

“It’s amazing to see the good work that they’re doing here.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Keiron TourishBBC News NI north west reporter BBC Health visitor Karen Brown said the project will provide “anything really that a parent is going to need” It’s not easy out there for families living through the cost-of-living crisis – and that’s why a new scheme in County Tyrone is offering free baby clothes in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10016,2542,1745,1807,90,12437],"class_list":["post-40133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-hand","tag-helping","tag-offers","tag-parents","tag-scheme","tag-strabane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40135,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40133\/revisions\/40135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}