Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Young People’s Forum hosted Stitch and Switch: Eco Fashion Festival at Northumbria University Student Union in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Funded by a £2,500 grant from the Naturesave Trust, the event was designed by young people to inspire clothing mending, upcycling, and reduce waste.
Attendees were asked ‘do you intend to reduce the environmental impact of your clothes in the future?’ and 100% said yes, with the most popular answers being to go to more clothes swaps, shop second hand, avoid fast fashion where possible and mend and upcycle clothes more. Attendees were asked what their favourite thing about the event was, some said that it was accessible for all abilities and genders, variety of activities on offer, the second-hand fashion shows and that it was environmentally sustainable.
The grant also made a big difference to the Young People’s Forum at NWT, as well as engagement with younger audiences. The forum members aimed to run an event where people could learn about the environmental impacts of fashion, learn mending skills and network with like-minded young people. With 150 attendees and over 400 items of clothing swapped, the event was a huge success. Another achievement was the large amount of community support: NWTs members and supporters donated items of clothing to kickstart the clothes swap and brands such as Barbour got in touch to donate stock to be swapped and shared through a tombola after seeing social media content about the event. Volunteers from university societies and NWT’s community were also enthusiastic in their support.
The event received some press coverage in local newspapers, such as the Northumberland Gazette, raising awareness of the event as well as the Young People’s Forum. From conception, this event was a youth-led initiative, with all logistics and planning done by the forum members, supported by NWT staff. It was NWT’s second ever youth-led event, and its success will pave the future for similar future initiatives, showing the organisation how important it is to champion and support youth voices and ideas. The biggest impact of the project was on the forum members themselves. Members have shared how much their confidence has grown because of planning and running the event, that they feel proud of their achievements and recognise the many skills they have gained, from event planning to social
media marketing and public engagement.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust is a charity dedicated to saving wildlife and wild places and helping people to get closer to nature. You can learn more about their work here.
