We are delighted to announce our first Community Partnership of the Year is with Kidzeco, a social enterprise that supports families, strengthens communities and protects the planet.
From preloved shopping to hands-on workshops, Kidzeco offers welcoming spaces where children and their parents can learn, play and grow together.
Founded by Tracy Murdoch in 2010, the social enterprise has both its preloved shop and play café located within The Centre, Livingston and provides free workshops and events to help build skills and confidence, promote health and wellbeing, and reduce feelings of isolation.
The social enterprise also delivers outreach work in Whitburn through their Bumpz 2 Babiez programme, giving new parents with little ones the opportunity to meet other people and build supportive friendships.
Kidzeco also promotes the benefits of donating unwanted items and encourages more sustainable shopping by highlighting how much waste can be saved in a circular economy and help reduce our environmental impact.
Various new initiatives are being launched this year at Kidzeco, including the Eco Bumz reusable nappy project, which will provide families with access to free and low-cost reusable nappy packs to cut nappy waste, ease household costs and to help make sustainable choices accessible for every family in the community.
The Family Platform is also a new community support project, just about to be launched, which relies on generous donations to help families at each stage of their journey by providing essential equipment, fun and educational classes and food packages. Details on the launch and how people can donate in the shop, café and online will be announced on their social media channels in the coming weeks.
Our ‘Support in the Community Initiative’ was established over 10 years ago to help local charities and social enterprises to raise awareness of their services and much-needed funds. This year we are planning to support four organisations who will all receive a £250 Gift Card, pop-up space for a weekend and marketing support.
The Kidzeco pop-up will take place on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March, located next to Marks & Spencer, where a team of volunteers will be on hand to give lots of information to shoppers about the preloved store, café, workshops and new projects.
Patrick Robbertze, Centre Director at The Centre, Livingston, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Kidzeco and look forward to their pop-up in the shopping centre at the end of March, which will give them a fantastic opportunity to raise even more awareness of the great work they are doing in the local community.”
Tracy Murdoch, Founder of Kidzeco, said: “We are so pleased to be chosen as the first Community Partner of the Year at The Centre, Livingston.
“This partnership will help us to reach even more families, raise awareness of our services and continue our mission to support parents, children and the planet. It will also allow us to highlight projects such as Eco Bumz and The Family Platform, which will make a real difference to families in our community.”