PRESS RELEASE
“Love in Action”: Valentines Day launch for winter clothes initiative for homeless people
- Arsenal FC donate coats and celebrities endorse the scheme
- New rail set up close to where homeless man froze to death
- Launch event, 1pm – 2pm, 13 February 2025 Wesley’s Chapel, 49 City Road, London EC1Y 1AU
An innovative initiative offering help to homeless people and those facing winter hardship, will have its winter launch on Valentines Day for its seventh year in a row on Thursday.
Take One Leave One is simple way to help those in need, enabling local communities to provide warm clothing to homeless people, rough sleepers and anyone experiencing difficulties in the winter months.
Rails of warm clothes are set up in any town or city beside a banner reading “If you need, take one. If you can help leave one”. People living or working in the neighbourhood donate clothing and those in need help themselves. Over the years, more than 150 rails have popped up across the UK and – for the second year – Arsenal Football Club are donating coats and jackets.
“With freezing temperatures hitting Britain, this simple idea which can be replicated anywhere, is a way to help ensure homeless people and anyone facing hardship can stay warm this winter. We felt it was appropriate to hold our winter launch on Valentines Day because this initiative is a form of love in action,” said Stefan Simanowitz, founder of Take One Leave One.
In 2021, someone working for Arsenal FC saw the Take One Leave One rail in Finsbury Park and got the club to donate a consignment of warm jackets and coats. This year, Arsenal are donating coats again which will be shared with TOLO rails across the capital.
This year’s launch is being hosted by the Wesley’s Chapel in Old Street. The chapel has been running a Take One Leave One rail for almost five years earning it the moniker among some locals of “the coat church”.
“In the winter of 2020 when many charity shops and support services were closed due to the pandemic, we saw Take One, Leave One in the press and set one up at our chapel,” says Reverend Dr Jennifer Smith Wesley’s Chapel’s superintendent minister who notes that children’s coats tend to go the fastest.”
“It has been hugely successful and has proved a really good way for people in our community to help one another in an area where tower blocks and closed entrance flats do not allow for much neighbourliness. There is no test for people who want to take a coat other than that they feel the cold and contrary to what you might expect, it is not abused. Indeed, TOLO shows that we can build trust in our community by being trustworthy, and by being trusting.”
The winter launch is intended to raise the profile of the initiative and to encourage people to set up a rail wherever they are. Many rails such as #TOLOBrighton and #TOLOVauxhall run all year round whilst others only pop up in winter.
One of the newest rails in Kentish Town, was been set up by 15-year-old schoolboy, Ben Zeno, following reports that a homeless man had frozen to death in a Camden bin shed in January.
“I found the fact that someone could have died due to the cold so close to where I live, really shocking,” said Ben Zeno, a Kentish Town resident. “Take One Leave One sent me a free banner with some guidance as to how to go about setting up a rail. The rail is in a good, covered location outside the station and is getting popular as more locals get to know about it.”
Originally set up during the cold snap of 2018 with a single rail in London’s Exmouth Market, the idea has spread with more that rails sprouting across the country. Take One Leave One has the received the thumbs up from homelessness charities including Centrepoint, Shelter, Crisis and the Big Issue who have helped promote the project over the number of years.
TOLO has also received celebrity support with visits from Baroness Jenny Jones, music legend Guy Pratt, comedian Simon Fanshaw, actor Rob Delaney, Jeremy Corbyn and Tweets from the likes of Gary Lineker, Emily Maitlis, Alaistair Stewart and band Massive Attack who helped set up and to promote Take One Leave One Bristol. “I love this idea. Please be kind” Boy George tweeted about TOLO in 2021.
In early 2023, TOLO organisers approached the heads of all the main UK charity shops with a simple proposal – that they put a rail of warm clothes for homeless people outside their shops this winter. This could ensure a Take One Leave One rail on every high street, and it is hoped that charities – particularly homelessness charities, Shelter, Crisis and the Salvation Army – will get involved.
“Take One Leave One is not a charity or an organisation – it is an idea: an idea as old as time and one that anyone, anywhere can adopt. Whilst it is shameful that giving out warm clothes should be necessary in one of the world’s wealthiest counties, it is also heart-warming to see how much kindness there is out there,” said Simanowitz.
For more information email: stefan.simanowitz@amnesty.org or call 07799650791 or visit www.takeoneleaveone.org
Launch event – Wesley’s Chapel, 49 City Road, London www.wesleyschapel.org.uk
TWITTER – @Take1_Leave1 / INSTAGRAM – @takeoneleaveone_
To order a banner contact mail@adlephigraphics.com
To find your local rail or find people who might help set one up, use the hashtag #TOLO + the name of your town/city (e.g. #TOLOBrighton) on Twitter and on Instagram
More on the history of TOLO – ‘An Idea as Old as Time’: How a Single Rail of Warm Clothes for Homeless People has Grown – Byline Times
BBC – London’s Take One Leave One scheme sees increase in demand – BBC News)
VOA – Video https://www.voanews.com/europe/mexican-idea-help-homeless-goes-global-take-one-leave-one
Read the story behind TOLO’s mascot, Farringdon Bear, https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1447161699824508929)
SET UP YOUR OWN RAIL
1. Get a clothes rail
2. Find good location (ideally sheltered from the rain)
3. Get the green light from locals
4. Make a sign or order a free banner from mail@adlephigraphics.com or contact stefan.simanowitz@amnesty.org for a free starter pack.
5. Collect warm clothes and hang them on the rail
6. Contact local media (we can provide a template press release)
7. Post on social media – Set up a Twitter / Instagram site using #TOLO plus the name of your city/town/village. You can also use this hashtag (e.g. #TOLOBrighton to see if there is already a rail near you OR to find local people who might be happy to help.
We do not take donations BUT supporters can help cover the cost of banners by sending Adelphi Graphics money (each banner costs £30 to make)
The Wesley Chapel only accepts coats and jackets but their sister church the Whitechapel Mission also welcomes donations of all clothes www.whitechapel.org.uk and is open every morning for warm food, showers, clothes, and help? They welcome up to 400 every morning, and they take clothes in and give them away quickly to rough sleepers.
To donate to #TOLOVauxhall visit www.l-e-s.org/lighthouse-hand-out