114. Lockdown Sort Out? The Disability Equipment Service may be able to help

114.  Lockdown Sort Out? The Disability Equipment Service may be able to help
 
If, like us during lockdown, you’ve used the opportunity to have a good sort out of lofts, garages and sheds, you may now have some items that you are looking to rehome…and we may be able to help 😊
 
As well as being partners in VIDA Training, and also having other jobs too, we (Dave and Vicky) are also partners in the Disability Equipment Service, a national website for the buying and selling of new and used disability equipment.
 
How it Works…
The website is free to use and allows people to list items that they have either for sale, for a donation and sometimes even for free. And then those that need items can search the website and hopefully find what they need for a reasonable price. If they can’t find what they need, they can also put a ‘wanted’ listing on the website.
 
Donating items…
No time to put the item onto our website? We do also accept some donated items of disability equipment. Sadly, we can’t accept everything but please do contact us to see if we can help.
 
Once donated, we then sell these items on at a competitive price. This helps us to cover the running costs of the website (and also covers a little bit of our time although believe me we put in a lot more than we take out 😊.)
 
Charity support…
In addition, for each item that is donated and then sold by us, we put aside 25% of any profit and donate this to an assistance dog charity, currently Support Dogs. This charity provide, train and support assistance dog partnerships for people with autism, epilepsy and physical disabilities. We have already supported our first partnership between Judith and her assistance dog Fudge and are raising funds again to support a second partnership.
 
Prior to raising funds for Support Dogs, we spent nearly 4 years raising funds to support Guide Dogs. This was a natural fit as Dave used to have a wonderful guide dog called Errol until he sadly died in service in 2017. We were proud to have named and sponsored 2 guide dog puppies through their first year of training, the first called Des after our service, and the second called Errol, in memory of Dave’s guide dog.
Details about all of these dogs are available on our Facebook page.
 
Please help us…
As well as using the website itself or donating equipment direct to us, please help us share what we do by liking and sharing this Insight, by following us on Facebook (/disabilityequipmentservice) and Twitter (@DESwebsite), telling friends and family about it and promoting the service where possible. We also have postcards and posters we can send out and can provide articles for local magazines and publications.
 
Finally, there are some features and upgrades that the website now requires to keep up with the latest browsers and mobile devices. Sadly we just can’t afford to do these without some additional help. We have therefore started a ‘Go Fund Me’ campaign where you can donate to help us with these updates as well as help to ensure that the website remains free to use for everyone going forward.
 
Contacts…
If you would like to list equipment/find out more - please visit www.disabilityequipmentservice.co.uk
Or, if you want to contact us about donating equipment or for postcards/posters – please email team@disabilityequipmentservice.co.uk
Or, if you would like to support our fundraising, visit GoFundMe - https://gf.me/u/yqgf3w
 
We’re always interested to know about other people’s experiences and thoughts. Please share these by commenting…
 
Interested to learn more about VIDA Training? Read about our Training and Consultancy packages, specialising in Vision Impairment and Disability Awareness, Communication and Team Building or contact us for further information.