Gladrags community costume service
Gladrags is a charity which provides costumes and educational tools to schools and community groups for a small hire fee. It has been operating in the Moulescoomb area for 16 years and began taking student volunteers from the University of Brighton in 2005.
Students help with a variety tasks including maintenance and repair of costumes, dealing with customers, administration and categorizing of stock. Project manager Vania Mills says "We try to get a sense of each individual volunteer's skill sets and interests, so we can give them tasks which they will find fulfilling."
Students volunteer from a variety of courses including fashion, history, English and business management. For some, the activity is a recognised placement which forms part of their course, but others simply choose to volunteer for personal development. The active student department at the university coordinates all volunteering activity and checks out the organisations thoroughly before students go in to work. Gladrags usually has three or four students assisting at any one time.
"We have been struck by how confident and capable the student volunteers are" said Vania, "we find them full of common sense and good at using their initiative to get on with anything that needs doing around the place. The staff at Active Student are clearly excellent at briefing the students so that they arrive motivated and fully prepared for the work that needs doing."
