Welsh Housing Awards winner 2023

Supporting communities

NU Life is situated in prime location within the Butetown area of Cardiff. Many families in this area are facing on a daily basis issues linked to the cost of living crisis, climate change and the reduced access to affordable furniture and furnishings.

NU Life therefore plays a significant role within the community, addressing the issue of furniture poverty within Cardiff and surrounding areas, as well as reducing the number of items sent to landfills.

We are a non-profit organisation who provides furniture and furnishings to families and individuals leaving hostels, refuge, temporary accommodation and others affected by homelessness at no cost to them. We have recently secured funding from the Principality Bank to help an additional 50 families and individuals with a discretionary fund (this is for families and individuals who are not eligible for other assistance, this includes people who could be working).

The project has a furniture showroom that anyone can purchase furniture at affordable prices. Sustainability is at the core of NU Life’s work and the furniture in the showroom is all pre-loved. Many are saved from landfill and then upcycled to give it a new lease of life.  We have a team of volunteers who lovingly restore and upcycled furniture that would otherwise end up in landfill.

NU Life currently has 15 volunteers who all live locally, the project would not be sustainable without their support. NU Life has six paid members of staff and four of whom were volunteers at NU Life before securing employment with us. As a result of the skills gained from volunteering with NU Life, eight volunteers have also secured paid employment as they have gained valuable work experience with us.

NU Life has also organically developed into a community hub providing not only furniture but courses and workshops within a safe and familiar environment and opportunities to connect/reconnect following the aftermath of covid. We offer a wide range of courses and activities such as:

• Free community craft events
• Repurposing lampshade workshops
• Decoupage workshops
• Weekly craft group
• Live Life To The Full course run by United Welsh and CCHA Housing Association
• Six weeks upcycling2upskill courses which have been a tremendous success for a group of local Somali women.

Zainab

“What set this course apart is the culturally and appropriate space which respects the groups religious and cultural values and traditions, enabling the group to learn skills without compromising their religious and cultural beliefs."

NU Life has also developed a variety of partnerships to help the community even further:

• Oasis Cardiff, an organisation dedicated to helping refugees and asylum seekers. We provide them with packages of essential kitchenware for refugee families who are moving into empty properties or need essential items
• We are a collection point for “Love Grace x” - an organization that collect handbags and toiletries for women in hospital or in refuge as a result of domestic violence.

Debbie Way  |  Cardiff representative

“The Love Grace x initiative wouldn’t have a presence in our local community without NU Life. They are amazing in their own rights but integral in what we do and achieve in Cardiff”

• We donate cots and baby items to Cwtch Baby group, they redistribute pre-loved baby items free to vulnerable families in the community
• We collect Tools for Self-Reliance Cymru they collect and repair tool and send to Africa
• We work with all the employability services, volunteering organisation within Cardiff, probation, social services, mental health support provisions and drug and alcohol services.

Sometimes the social value of a project is difficult to define, however the amount of people using our services has increased dramatically and keeps on increasing. Here is a summary of our outcomes from April 2022 to March 2023:

• 375 families and individuals supported with free essential furniture and furnishings
• 7,706 items saved from landfills
• 3,861 volunteering hours
• Six colunteers secured employment
• Nine families and individuals helped by discretionary assistance fund
• 16 families and individuals helped at Christmas with presents and food
• 36 people who attended upcycle to upskill courses
• Due to the cost of living crisis, the number of people looking for affordable furniture has dramatically increased and as a result our Facebook page has now reached 4,000 plus followers
• NU Life was one of six finalists in the UK Reuse Organisation of the Year Award.