Northampton housing providers’ Community Repaint shop donates paint to brighten up charity’s new premises.

Local housing provider, Northampton Partnership Homes’ (NPH) Paint Shop recently donated tins of paint to local charity, the lowdown, to brighten up their new premises in St Giles Street.

the lowdown provides free and confidential support services for young people in Northamptonshire, including counselling, mental health support, wellbeing drop-ins and LGBTQ+ support. The charity has recently needed to add to their existing office space due to demand on their services, to ensure they can continue to support local young people.

The donation of 30 litres of paint came from NPH’s subsidiary Happy to Help CIC, which runs the Paint Shop based in Kings Heath. The paint was put to great use, helping to brighten up the charity’s new space, creating a friendly and welcoming environment for the lowdown to offer their services.

Ellie White, fundraising and marketing manager at the lowdown said: “We are delighted to be donated paint from Happy to Help CIC through the Paint Shop for our additional new premises on St Giles Street. Due to the increase in demand for our services, we have needed to expand our office space and have rooms to accommodate our RE:Start service which provides practical support for 16-25 year olds transitioning from CAMHS into Adult Mental Health Services. The donation of paint helps us to provide a clean welcoming and professional space for both service users and our team.”

The Paint Shop, which is part of the Community Repaint scheme, is the only shop of its kind in the county. It is managed by volunteers who collect paint donations from local businesses, tradespeople and members of the public, which is sold back to the community at low prices. This helps keep prices affordable for customers, but also means the team are able to support local charities working hard to support people in Northampton.

Cam Whyld, head of engagement at NPH said: “We’re really pleased to be able to support the lowdown, who do incredible work supporting young people in Northampton. The idea for the Paint Shop came from conversations we had with our residents, who wanted to help support the local community to decorate and brighten up their spaces at low prices. It’s been a real hit, thanks to the hard work of our volunteers and the generosity of those who have donated their leftover paint to the shop. Thanks to them, we can support local people and community organisations to decorate their spaces at low prices.”

The Paint Shop is located in Park Square, Kings Heath NN5 7LQ, and is open to everyone. The opening times are Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10am – 2pm.

If you have any leftover, reusable paint that you would like to donate to the shop, the team would be delighted to hear from you. They’ll help you get on your way to becoming a valued donor to the scheme. Contact the team on [email protected] or call on 01604 837836.