CHRISTMAS CLOSURES FOR OUR OP SHOPS:

Bowral – closes on Saturday Dec 19^th and reopens Monday January 4^th

Cessnock – closes Friday Dec 18th and reopens on Monday January 11th

Maitland  – closes Tuesday Dec 22^nd and reopens on Tuesday January 5th

The economic crisis has left charities with their lowest level of stock on record. Youth Off The Streets are asking for your support in donating your unused, quality goods to our Op Shops to contribute towards the costs of running the services that we provide for disadvantaged young people.

“Giving quality goods is a great way to help the community. This is not only because you are helping to provide cheap and good quality goods to families that struggle to find the money to spend on these items, but the profits will also go towards the delivery of our services that have helped disadvantaged young people for more than 20 years”, Father Riley said.

Why not do a Spring Clean and see what unused goods you have that could make a difference in the lives of Australia’s most disadvantaged youth. Clothes, bric-a-brac and other quality goods are all appreciated. To find the nearest Op Shop to you click here.

About Father Chris Riley’s Op Shops

The Opportunity Shop service aims to provide affordable second-hand clothing, bric-a-brac, linen and furniture goods to those who are struggling financially.

Our Op Shops, each one known as “Father Riley’s Op Shop”, are vital in helping Youth Off The Streets raise much needed income for our programs and services. Our Op Shops are also helping the environment, and local communities. Some of the benefits of shopping at one of our Op Shops include:

• Budget shopping: we aim to sell quality items at very low prices
• Helping the environment
• Fundraising for Youth Off The Streets progrms
• Ethical benefits
• Volunteering opportunities
• Raising awareness of our work with young people

You can support our Op Shops by donating to them, buying from them and volunteering in them.

Our shops are located in Bowral and the Hunter/Newcastle region (Cessnock, and Maitland).

All Youth Off The Streets Opportunity Shops are staffed entirely by volunteers who play a crucial role in enabling Youth Off The Streets to provide this much needed service to the local community.

For volunteering opportunities, please click here.

For contact details and opening hours for the shops please click here.

To arrange pick up of your donation please phone (02) 4984 9586, or drop in your donation to your nearest store, during operating hours.

The donations that we are UNABLE to accept include:

• Televisions
• Television units
• Gas appliances
• 3 phase electrical goods, for example hot water services
• Dirty furniture; lounges, beds, etc
• Carpet
• Building materials
• Car battteries or tyres
• Piano’s and pianola’s
• Damaged goods of any kind are not accepted.

At present we are not accepting extra heavy goods such as pool tables, large sofa beds, large dining tables, glass topped tables due to the weight restrictions we have regarding work, health and safety in our Op Shops. The best thing to do is call us and discuss what you have in mind.

Please do not dump your waste at our stores: our dumping costs are over $21,000- per year and we want to use these funds for our programs, not for waste disposal.  We make every attempt to on-sell to recyclers what we can, but there is still a significant amount of waste dumped outside of operating hours that we cannot sell.

Thank you for your support.