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Supporting Tools for Self Reliance – Practical Help for Practical People

Support Us

There are many ways you can contribute to our worthwhile cause

Volunteer

We are a friendly group, and if you join us you can help a good cause, gain experience, and have fun at the same time. We would welcome volunteers to help out in our workshops, and assist with sales and support.

Workshop Volunteers

We refurbish hand Tools – from home in some cases – and at our excellent central workshop and meeting rooms provided by our hosts, Bablake School, Coundon Road, Coventry. During term time we attend 6 – 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday evening and 9.30 a.m.- 1.00 p.m. during school half term and holidays. We refurbish and sharpen tools back to “as near new as possible” condition (and training is provided where necessary). Our range includes tools for carpentry, building, engineering, tailoring (sewing machines), auto mechanics and gardening.

Sales and Support Volunteers

As well as sending tool kits to be used in courses in Africa, we advertise for and collect locally unwanted/surplus tool donations, which calls for volunteer collectors, and we particularly welcome volunteers to raise funds by selling our own surplus finished stock that is advertised online. Our support team members also engage in PR/community group presentations, website development, and promoting our activities in the Coventry & Warwickshire Community.

At the moment we are particularly keen to recruit volunteers who can respond to telephone enquiries about tools we have advertised for sale online (on Gumtree, Preloved, etc.). This would entail storing tools at home (such as in a garage), showing them to prospective buyers, and hopefully completing the sale.

If you would like to volunteer with us, please contact us via our Contact Us page. We look forward to hearing from you!​

Donate Funds

By making a donation to Tools for Self Reliance, you can help people to earn a sustainable income and change their life, and the life of their family, for years to come. As a donor, you can be part of that journey of transformation. Your gift today will make a real and immediate difference. If you want to make a donation to Tools for Self Reliance, and you pay tax in the United Kingdom (UK), you may also wish to make a Gift Aid declaration. This means that the national Tools for Self Reliance charity can reclaim from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) the basic rate of tax on the value of the gift. For further information please e-mail info@tfsr.org​

Donate Items

Tools

Because of a lack of storage space we are not currently appealing for donations. If you have something that you think would be of particular interest or value, please get in touch via our Contact Us page.

Haberdashery

Donations of items of haberdashery are used in tailoring courses, to support trainees to  achieve self reliance. If you have any of the following, and would like to donate, please get in touch via the Contact Us page:

  • Hand or electric sewing machines with round bobbin – in working order
  • Zips
  • Safety pins
  • Assorted elastic
  • Press studs
  • Hooks and eyes
  • Interfacing
  • Petersham
  • Lengths of cotton material – more than 1 metre long
  • Buckles
  • Dress making pins
  • Knitting needles
  • Crochet hooks
  • Crochet thread
  • Sewing cotton
  • Sewing or knitting patterns
  • Sewing machine needles
  • Thimbles
  • Knitting wool (enough of the same thickness to knit a baby jacket or bootees)
  • Assorted buttons
10th February 2022

A Message of Appreciation

Over the past five years, the Coventry and Warwickshire Group has raised over £24K, which has been sent to Tools for Self Reliance to help fund training courses in Africa. More than half of this was raised over the past two years, in spite of Covid restraints. The group has also sent large quantities of refurbished tools, to be used both for training purposes, and to equip trainees to work independently when qualified. Ben Riley, who is the charity’s Volunteer Co-ordinator, emailed us recently saying: “An increase on each year’s fundraising (including the COVID years) is an amazing achievement. These efforts go in line with what myself and other staff here regularly say about the Coventry group, and how you are an excellent example of our volunteer groups – in terms of your approach to the tools we need, sales and your recruitment of new members. Please thank everyone for me for all the hard work”. On our part, we would like to thank the people of Coventry and Warwickshire for their generosity and support over the recent difficult times.