Winter warmth
What items can we take?
This category is for getting warm gear to folks in need. Please make sure items are clean and in wearable condition. Any other threads can go into your threads bag!
Coats
Jackets
Beanies
Winter hats
Gloves and mittens
Scarves
Hoodies
Hand and feet warmers
New and unopened packages
What isn’t in this category?
Damaged or unwearable clothes
These can go in your threads bag!
Clothes with broken zippers
These can go in your threads bag!
Shoes or boots
These can go in your threads bag!
Blankets
Winter warmth.
As the weather gets cooler, we pull out our jackets, scarves, gloves, and coats to bundle up. You might just find yourself with that old pea coat that you bought a few years ago or that scarf your mother-in-law gave you that's been gathering dust in your closet.
There are people in your community who can find value in your old gear! You can help give them a chance to stay warm this winter.
Partnering with Downtown Emergency Service Center
DESC (the Downtown Emergency Service Center) serves Seattle's most vulnerable population that is experiencing houselessness by providing housing, behavioral and physical health services, and crisis response. Specifically, DESC focuses on the chronically houseless population that is experiencing mental health and physical health challenges, as well as substance use disorders. Their goal is to help clients achieve their highest potential for independence, self-determination, and personal responsibility.
Partnering with International Rescue Committee, Seattle
The International Rescue Committee provides opportunities for refugees, asylees, victims of human trafficking, survivors of torture, and other immigrants to thrive in America. Each year, thousands of people, forced to flee violence and persecution, are welcomed by the people of the United States into the safety and freedom of America. These individuals have survived against incredible odds. The IRC works with government bodies, civil society actors, and local volunteers to help them translate their past experiences into assets that are valuable to their new communities. In Seattle and other offices across the country, the IRC helps them to rebuild their lives. Winter coats provided by Ridwell will be given to refugees as they arrive and are welcomed at the airport.
Partnering with Compass Housing Alliance
Compass Housing Alliance is fighting the problems of homelessness and lack of affordable housing head-on. Through the development and operation of permanent affordable housing with supportive services, expansive 24/7 enhanced shelter programs, and a robust emergency services hub, Compass helps low-income and unhoused individuals and families in our community end the cycle of homelessness.
Compass began more than 100 years ago in Seattle’s Pioneer Square as a haven for those who were working in the region's earliest industries. Today, their range of services includes a hygiene center, mail services, 222 enhanced emergency shelter beds; and 684 affordable studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units in 20 affordable supportive housing locations. Unique to Compass is their ability to provide shelter and stability to neighbors in need, regardless of where they may be on their journey to home.
Through all its programs, Compass touches the lives of thousands of individuals, families, and Veterans in King County each year. All of Compass’s housing and services programs are informed by guiding principles of stability, growth, and community.
Partnering with Kandelia
Kandelia is a nonprofit community organization providing direct programs, connections to community resources, and tools to address systemic inequities so immigrant and refugee families and communities can thrive without having to compromise values, heritage or ethnicity. Leveraging their convener model and years of experience rooted in the Vietnamese community, they center youth in their work—championing and building them up so they can be their full authentic selves.
Kandelia's programs are based at Seattle World School, one of only a few public schools in the country designed for newly arrived refugee and immigrant youth. They offer after-school programs, family classes, and a food access program in which students and families are able to take home a weekly bag of fresh fruits, vegetables, pantry staples, and culturally-relevant food items.
Partnering with WestSide Baby
WestSide Baby helps local families and children get the basics they need for a stable environment from clothes and diapers to strollers and toys. They provide 45 diapers per month per child, free of charge, to as many clients as possible who need them. Their volunteers bundle the diapers and prepare them for distribution.
Partnering with Northwest Center
Northwest Center (NWC) was founded in 1965 by Seattle parents who refused to give up when their kids with disabilities were rejected from schools. Northwest Center (NWC) is one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive organizations serving the community with disability inclusion programs and services that advance equal opportunities for people of all abilities. Today, Northwest Center provides Early Supports and inclusive Early Learning for children from birth to school age, where kids of all abilities share classrooms, playgrounds, and high expectations; and Employment Services where candidates with disabilities find employment as meaningful to them as it is beneficial to their employer. Northwest Center is living proof: when people of all abilities learn and work together, everyone benefits.
Partnering with Emergency Feeding Program
The mission of Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle & King County (EFP) is to provide an emergency response to the nutritional needs of people in crisis hunger situations throughout Seattle and King County. They are dedicated to alleviating hunger while providing individuals with resources counseling to help move them towards independence.
The EFP was founded in 1977 under the banner of the Black United Clergy for Action and the Church Council of Greater Seattle. The EPF was established specifically to address the following two problems people in need of food assistance were experiencing: (1) the quality of food available tended to depend on the affluence of the neighborhood in which the food bank was located; and (2) it was often difficult, if not impossible, for an individual or family to find everything they needed to make nutritionally balanced meals in a single trip to the food bank.
Partnering with YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish
Founded in 1894, YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish has been breaking down barriers to equity for nearly 130 years. YWCA is the region’s oldest and largest organization focused on the needs of women, providing services and advocacy to support stable homes and economic advancement, reduce violence and improve health, and promote racial equity and social justice. With programs that serve 7,000 people each year, YWCA is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families, and strengthen communities. Through direct services and advocacy, YWCA helps women and families move from surviving to thriving.
Join the movement to build a future without waste.
