Taking Care of Business (previously known as The Clothing Bank) is delighted to have received the Social Impact Award at this year’s Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards held on Thursday 23 November 2023. The award is open to organisations working in the fashion and textile system and honours those who have a direct positive impact on people, such as raising awareness about social concerns, creating employment opportunities, and encouraging good and fair working conditions.
Established in 2010, Taking Care of Business (TCB) is a non-profit social enterprise which trains and equips unemployed South Africans to escape the cycle of poverty by helping them become self-employed. TCB uses end-of-range and customer-returned clothes donated by large retailers as stock for their beneficiaries’ businesses, contributing to the circular economy by re-using clothing that would have ended up on the landfill. Every year, TCB puts up to 950 people through their two-year enterprise development programmes in their branches in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Paarl and East London.
Tracy Gilmore, co-founder of TCB, says “We love that the Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards inspires the fashion industry to be more conscious of the impact we have on people and the planet. We are honoured and absolutely delighted to receive this award. Our focus is on equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills and resources they need to unlock their full potential by accessing the economy and, in doing so, eradicating poverty from their lives. Being able to do this in a way that also supports the fashion industry on its journey to sustainability is wonderful,” she says.
“The Twyg’s ideals of being kind, fair, inclusive, diverse, sustainable, and embracing the circular economy resonates with everything we do. We thank them for all their hard work and for recognising and awarding the work TCB is doing too,” says Gilmore.