The Honesty Jar - A Community Recycling Station - SwapShop & Workshops
In a nutshell - 'The Honesty Jar' itself is a pot to receive voluntary contributions. The SwapShop is a community recycling station where you can take things and exchange them for either other things or cash, once our overheads are paid, we use any profits to run family friendly community live music, craft events and training sessions for home carers and youth groups on topics such as autistic spectrum disorder, dementia awareness, mental health and conflict management.
Items are also gifted to those in need through organisations such as Help & Care, homelessness, rehabilitation, isolation, hardship and refugee support groups. The Honesty Jar project started in 2019 by local non-profit group BearCat Collective, who have been running these SwapShops on a pop-up basis as part of many other community activities at various village halls, fetes and shows around North Dorset & South Somerset for the last ten years. We are based at Grassroots Garden Centre on the main road in Henstridge on the Dorset / Somerset border. Opening hours for The Honesty Jar change with the seasons and availability of volunteers, generally 10am till 4pm every day of the week except Wednesdays. Due to the current situation and non-physical-cash guidelines, we have just installed a contactless card payment, and also have online donation options for you to support the project. |
We are currently closed -
Hopefully re-opening on 1st June 2020 Our hope is to reopen at the beginning of June, for this to happen, we need your help. Many of our current volunteers are not able to return for some time yet. We need local helpers for the SwapShop to get in touch now - volunteering can be for an occasional hour, or regular days, the rota is totally flexible.
A lot of preparations have been going on behind the scenes. We have created a covered outdoor drop off for SwapShop contributions. Items are quarantined before sorting and volunteers have separate spaces to work at safe distances. During May we also need to sort a backlog of donated items before we can open in June. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more. Many thanks Contributions to The Honesty Jar DonatePayPal option...
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We’ve made a contactless drop off covered outside area, to receive SwapShop contributions. So that when we are able to reopen, items can be stored for a few days before being sorted.😊💚♻️
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Please enjoy reading some news, reviews and have a peek at some pictures below. We would love to hear about your favourite swaps and up-cycling projects from SwapShop finds. Lots of people ask "What sort of things are in the SwapShop?" Well, we're busy sorting everything ready to open, hopefully on 1st June, so here's a floorplan of what's in & where at the moment -
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So lovely to find this note in our ‘help yourself’ basket outside the gates. We’ve had many visitors over the last few weeks - taking fabric, buttons, binding & elastic, we would love to see some of the creations you’ve made #UpCycleWarriors #LovetheNHS 😊💚♻️
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In these unusual times of lockdown, some people’s regular means of support are no longer available. Thanks to ‘Help & Care’ we have been made aware of a local resident who has had a delivery from the food bank, but has no kitchen utensils.
So happy to be able to help with items donated to the SwapShop >😊♻️💚 
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You can use the community tab on our facebook page to invite your friends & help to spread the word about this community resource
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Reviews :
"Went there today for the first time, lovely place, lots of lovely items! Looking forward to my next visit in your new establishment 🥳👗👔👖👕🧥🥾🧳👝👒🧦📚🧣🧢😃" Nicole F, March 2020 "this is an amazing place they have everything you need. if they don't have it they will put a request on a board that all customers can read and donate to" Jorja L, February 2020 "a little bit of everything and friendly volunteers" Geoff H, February 2020 "Fabulous place to take your unwanted things & find things you like! Invaluable to fundraisers looking for items to sell for charity! Love it x" Viv H, February 2020 "Lovely little place with a lot of nice things. Was glad to have a good clear out myself to donate and daughter picked out couple bits she wanted to take home. Look forward to our next visit" Kay W, February 2020 "Had a lovely morning with the helpful ladies in the honesty jar. Annie helped me master my demon sewing machine! Watch this space. May have also left with some lovely old book, a cardi and a dvd! Oops! Will defo be back. Xxx" Beth J, January 2020 "An amazing places helped me out alot over Christmas and have found thinks to update my house get a Duvet and made 2 new v Shap pillow covers and also picked up some nets and made them to measure my windows so pleased" Marie W, January 2020 "This place is like Aladdin’s cave! Take your time to rummage around as there are many delights to be found. The volunteers were lovely and chatty" Emma C, January 2020 "Really lovely volunteers and such a good idea" Helen Isbell W, January 2020 "Went for a visit this week. I was made most welcome by the volunteers in the shop. It's a little hidden treasure and should be advertised more. I came away with boots, trousers, shoes and jumpers. A great place to swap your unwanted items for items you actually want and need" Tracie H, January 2020 "I went today with a bag of goodies and swapped them for some lovely trousers and novel earrings!! going to bring my sewing project in next time!!love it there!😍" Sally G, January 2020 "A real treasure trove. Love the idea of swapping. Great for those of us on a fixed income and great for the environment. Winners all round" Lisa W, November 2019 "My daughter-in-law and I visited today, we were like two children in a sweet shop 😊. This is such a great idea and I would definitely recommend a visit. We will certainly be back" Tracey P, November 2019 "I visited today and had the best time. Officially my new favourite place!! I would recommend to anyone it's such a lovely idea. I will be back again soon to bring another bag full of donations and to have another rummage for some more swapping. 😆👍" Lauren P, November 2019 "Popped in this morning - lovely people. Got some nice things too. please visit and support" Sarah H, November 2019 
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Since opening in November 2019
we have processed 10 tonnes of contributions!
Keeping stuff out of local landfill, helping local families on a budget
& helping towards cutting pollution through reduced need for manufacturing.
We are now at Grassroots Garden Centre,
Stalbridge Road (A357) Henstridge BA8 0SA
Regular Opening Hours are 10am-4pm Every Day Except Wednesdays
Like the The Honesty Jar facebook page to keep up to date &
find out about what treasure is coming into the swap:-
books, clothes, costume jewellery, hand tools, plants, produce,
plus craft workshops and special events
A new home for the SwapShop
somewhere we can do what we do in marquees in a field...
all year round in the warm & dry, Yay!
A space to relax, meet people, make stuff, fix things, play music, learn skills, share coffee, find treasure...
We are super excited and need help, support, guidance, ideas and advice from all of you.
Profits from the SwapShop fund health and social care training for local family carers, community music events,
family craft workshop materials, transport, structures and insurances.
♻️ Keep up to date by liking the Facebook page - facebook.com/thehonestyjar ♻️
Volunteers : There is a Google calendar to coordinate who's available at what times at the bottom of this page below the pictures
we have processed 10 tonnes of contributions!
Keeping stuff out of local landfill, helping local families on a budget
& helping towards cutting pollution through reduced need for manufacturing.
We are now at Grassroots Garden Centre,
Stalbridge Road (A357) Henstridge BA8 0SA
Regular Opening Hours are 10am-4pm Every Day Except Wednesdays
Like the The Honesty Jar facebook page to keep up to date &
find out about what treasure is coming into the swap:-
books, clothes, costume jewellery, hand tools, plants, produce,
plus craft workshops and special events
A new home for the SwapShop
somewhere we can do what we do in marquees in a field...
all year round in the warm & dry, Yay!
A space to relax, meet people, make stuff, fix things, play music, learn skills, share coffee, find treasure...
We are super excited and need help, support, guidance, ideas and advice from all of you.
Profits from the SwapShop fund health and social care training for local family carers, community music events,
family craft workshop materials, transport, structures and insurances.
♻️ Keep up to date by liking the Facebook page - facebook.com/thehonestyjar ♻️
Volunteers : There is a Google calendar to coordinate who's available at what times at the bottom of this page below the pictures
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Lovely words from one of our volunteers and musicians Kimberley Smith 😊💚♻️
"Since being a part of BearCat, I have often heard the same questions I had once asked; "how does this actually work? There seems to be no profit to be made, or anything, I find it hard to see how this works..." Well, the trick is: recycling, reusing, reducing, regifting, re-paring, and recovering. What comes in, and goes out, is the circulatory beauty of The Honesty Jar. It's power to the people, and it's being a part of those who have something to offer with zest and compassion, and thus breeds a new gift to be recycled into something else, be it a nice word, action, or an object. You never know what will happen at the end of the day, when a collective of people can put their minds together, only magic can be produced as part of such an activity. Please spread the word!" |
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We have been thrilled with the response to our SmartWorks project, sending super-smart clothes, shoes, bags and accessories to to the Smart Works charity, a very worthwhile award-winning organisation that helps unemployed women succeed at job interviews. We collected together some of the quality business clothes so generously donated to the Honesty Jar. They still need more low-heeled shoes, stylish shoulder bags and business clothes, especially sizes 16+. If you would like to know more about sponsoring a box as an individual or organisation, please get in touch.
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What is ‘Magic Hat’?
...nothing is priced, visitors give voluntary contribution - what they can afford and what they would like to give... if there is enough in the ‘hat’ to keep the project sustainable, the doors stay open... community people-power in action 😊💚♻️ 
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THJ2 ... The Honesty Jar at Grassroots in Henstridge
Moving to THJ2 - March 2020
The Honesty Jar's First Home (2019-2020)
Decorating THJ1 - October 2019
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