What’s your idea?

We want to develop an online community to connect charitable organisations with knitters; making it easy to donate hand-knitted gifts to charity (e.g. Children’s hospitals, Hospices, Care Homes).

Hand-made toys are very meaningful gifts, and the time and care that goes into their making often means a great deal to the recipient. We want to make it easy for knitters to find out what items charities need, and pledge their time to knit a gift. The website will also enable  knitters to see the positive impact of their contribution through photos or comments from the charities.

What is the social need or challenge your idea could address?

Being in hospital, care home or in a hospice can be isolating and an upsetting experience for anyone. The sick and the elderly are some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We want to make them feel special, by providing hand-made gifts which can be cherished for years to come. This could range from a cute cuddly toy to a beautiful lace shawl.

Also, the website could become a buzzing online community, enabling older, more experienced knitters to pass on skills to younger, inexperienced knitters [2]. It could be a place to pass on patterns or tips. And mostly, it gives an incentive for people to do something for a social purpose.

It helps that we know that this type of model has worked well before: Innocent Smoothies launched the “Big Knit” [1] in 2003 which has raised over £370,000 for Age Concern. It demonstrates that it works (and that knitters are generous people!)

[1] http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/thebigknit/?Page=bigknit_movie

[2] http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/B66C32B686014647972E5B10CED14732.asp

What’s really new about your idea?

Traditionally, charities have targetted unwanted, second-hand items to sell. The focus here is on requesting hand-knitted items, which are arguably more valuable. Currently, there are no well-known places (on- or offline) which provide a one-stop-shop to find out the charities that want items; what items these charities want; where to send the items to.

What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place?

As a fellow knitter, I noticed that hospitals and charities often request knitted toys, blankets and hats - especially during the holiday period. There are plenty of knitters that are willing to help, but there is no easy way of finding out which charities need items, and which type of items they are after. In addition, the Big Knit campaign from Innocent Smoothies was also a big inspiration.

From 1-5, what stage of development would you say your idea was in?

1 - very early stage

What can we do for you?

I would need a Geek, Mentor and Funder in that order.

If Social Innovation Camp is able to help push your idea forward, do you have the time or desire to take ownership of it?

Yes

This idea was submitted by Kate Ho.

Kate is  a PhD student doing research on requirements engineering for computer-based scientific tools and infrastructures. She’s based at the Social Informatics Cluster at Edinburgh University.