Hello, We are Community Gift Exchange (CGX) - an employability, inclusion and environmentally purposed charity with a vision for thriving community in the heart of Ayrshire.
Since servicing and selling our first bike in 2018 we have engaged over 100 volunteers and trainees in our ‘Cycle Works’ project. This has involved repairing and reselling 300 safe and affordable bikes to our local community, refurbishing a 25 bike hire fleet to enhance Ayr’s active tourism, and dismantling 100 others for reusable parts and material recycling.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our first bike workshop was permanently closed and we now have to move into a new location on Ayr’s High Street. This new workshop will be a place where job seeking trainees and volunteers can learn valuable employability skills including teamwork, safety awareness and communication alongside some industrial and retail skills such as bike maintenance, stock management and customer service.
At CGX we are committed to working in our community to alleviate poverty. The skills learnt in our workshop can be transferred to many jobs and increase the likelihood of being employed and earning money, hence enabling individuals to overcome poverty. A number of our volunteers are homeless and in temporary accommodation so the team lunch we provide can be the only hot meal they are guaranteed that day. We are also aware of the struggles people may face outside of work, so we can offer practical support in the form of free or discounted household items or furniture from our homeware shop.
By offering quality bikes at good prices we are helping local households save money for the essentials such as food and heating which many in poverty struggle to afford. In our first 3 years of sales our small but dedicated community have saved local household budgets over £300,000 by choosing second hand goods over new ones.
So what are we raising money for?
The money you help us raise will cover the costs of fitting out our new Cycle Works bike workshop. We need chemical cabinets to safely store our cleaning materials, large storage racks for the crates of recycled bike parts and bike racks on which to store and display our fleet of donated bikes. We are very aware of our environmental impact and we will use some funds to recycle worn out tires properly.
Once Cycle Works is up and running the sales of the bikes will make the workshop self-sustaining, enabling us to deliver employability and inclusive volunteering opportunities, and all the environmental and wellbeing benefits of cycling for years to come.
Thank you for your support!