A Touch of Equality

Steve Bamford is a Graphic Designer with an interesting sideline in scarves. We asked him how he was using his business acumen to help the homeless.

So Steve, you sell scarves, right? What’s the big idea?

TwoToo is about bringing some warmth and hope to those who need it most.  For every TwoToo scarf sold we give another one away to a homeless person who needs help to keep them warm.

TwoToo is the opposite of most designer labels. Instead of implying exclusivity and superiority it expresses support and identification with those in need - a touch of equality in an unequal world.

What a great idea! Have you always been a scarf salesman?

No! I’ve spent most of my life as a Graphic Designer and I have been running my own design consultancy for the last 26 years. I was one of those insensitive people who felt that homeless people that I saw begging on the streets should just go and get themselves a job. However, I felt challenged about my attitude and wanted to do something about it. My church, St John’s, Harborne, was involved in the Birmingham Soup Run, so I decided to go along and see what it was like. My attitude was totally changed through meeting and talking to the homeless people and hearing the many different reasons why they’d ended up on the streets.

I started volunteering there one Friday per month. In the autumn of my second year with the Soup Run I thought it would be good to find a way to give the homeless people that we met something extra at Christmas. I wanted to be able to give them all scarves as a way to make them warmer than they would otherwise have been and to show that people were thinking about them.

Your website says you initially thought you could probably sell 50 scarves in the run-up to Christmas 2007. How many did you actually sell?

We usually had about 50 people turning up at the Soup Runs for food each night and so I thought that if I could find a way to fund the cost to buy 50 scarves I could then give those scarves away to the homeless people. I researched the cost to buy scarves wholesale and typical retail prices for similar items and realized that I could sell a scarf at a very reasonable £5 and finance the cost of a second one that could then be given away. I could have just bought and sold plain, non-branded scarves but I wanted to give the whole process some identity and that’s where the idea of TwoToo came in! I presented the idea to our Soup Run team who loved the idea, then presented it to our church leaders to see if we could potentially promote it to the church members. The support was so great that we ended up selling just over 500 scarves instead of the 50 that I’d been aiming for! 

We’ve now given away around 1200 scarves, and are hoping to be able to donate 500 more this Christmas.

I think one reason for its popularity is that people can identify directly with the concept. If they buy a scarf and are wearing it they can easily visualise the homeless person wearing theirs. Also I think people appreciate that we’re not just asking for donations so that we can give scarves away, instead they are actually receiving something of value in return for their money as well as them contributing to the cost of the scarf that’s given away.

Who has received the benefit of all those donated scarves? 

Initially we were involved directly with handing them out to the homeless people we met on the Soup Run and they were genuinely pleased to receive them. They are often given secondhand items of clothing but they really appreciated that they were actually getting something new.

In the first winter we also gave scarves to vulnerable elderly people that the church had contact with, and a week later one lady said: “I haven’t taken it off yet, it’s really comfortable and warm!”

Since that first year we’ve worked to develop a network for distribution that ensures that the right people receive the scarves. Now that my wife and I are living in Poole, having moved in the summer of 2010, we have developed strong relationships with local homeless projects that really appreciate receiving and distributing the scarves to their contacts. These include Bournemouth BCHA’s St Paul’s night shelter ‘Sleep Safe’ Campaign; ‘Michael House, providers of emergency and longer-term accommodation to homeless people and Routes to Roots who provide Soup-Runs and a Drop-In centre in Poole. We will also continue to support the Birmingham Soup Run for homeless people and are working on finding other homeless projects around the country who would like to partner with us.

My wife and I moved to Poole in 2010 and joined Citygate Church in Bournemouth. It’s a great church, and we really identified with the work they do with homeless people and people in recovery from a variety of addictions. They work closely with ‘Michael House’ a local homeless hostel, which will be receiving TwoToo scarves this year. I’ve been promoting TwoToo through business networking events that I’ve been to and I’ve been really encouraged by the support that I’ve had from a number of marketing and PR people who have helped to get the news out at no cost to us at all.

How many staff do you have? 

Staff?! That’s just myself and my wife, Barbara. It’s been very much a ‘cottage industry’ so far with extra volunteers at busy times.

I would love to expand the business further and ideally on a ‘For profit’ basis, as I think that model is a better fit for TwoToo than either a Charity or Not-for Profit model. There is nothing unbiblical about making a profit and the main aim for TwoToo achieving a profit would be to able to give as many scarves away as possible.

What makes TwoToo distinctively Christian?

It is living out the call to help the homeless that Isaiah 58 best describes and Jesus repeatedly calls us to. However, the idea of TwoToo resonates extremely positively with non Christians and I’ve been surprised that a lot of the support that we’ve had has come from non church sources.

We’ve also always aimed to source our Scarves and T-Shirts from ethical sources. So far we have been buying from wholesale suppliers who profess to have ethical policies relating to their suppliers. If we can develop TwoToo to a larger business we’d like to be able to buy from source and therefore have more direct control on where we buy from.

There are a lot of people out there who have great ideas like this, but who aren’t sure how to act on them. What advice would you give them?

Being a creative person, running a design business and needing to have creative ideas on a daily basis, is a real privilege. The tricky part is deciding which ideas are the good ones!

In the same way that we need to have discernment in our spiritual lives, I find I need to have discernment of my creative ideas. If an idea comes to me and then is gone by the next day that usually means it wasn’t very good. TwoToo is one of those that wouldn’t go away! I had the thought of the original idea quite a few months before I shared it with anyone, and it kept coming back to me during that time. This is one of the signs of an idea that is worth thinking about! You need to have that confidence to push an idea forward as it does take a lot of time and energy as well as capital to start something like TwoToo.

Balancing TwoToo and the demands of church and family life can be difficult at times but I view TwoToo as a combination of my church commitment and everything I do, and I’m fortunate that I have an understanding wife! Rest is something that I’m not so good at but part of the plan in moving to Poole was to enjoy the area and I’ve recently taken up windsurfing, and Poole is the perfect place to start! 

Has there been a time when you wanted to give up?

Yes, I’ve frequently thought about giving up! Particularly when I’ve been putting lots of time in and not seeing results. Often people are really supportive, but when it comes down to it, nothing happens unless I do it!

As I mentioned earlier, a belief in what you’re doing is very important and in helping to keep your passion. Having confidence in the idea and that you’re doing the right thing is a very real help to keep me motivated. Since we started TwoToo in Autumn 2007, as each year has come around I’ve thought “Should we carry on?” So far the answer has been ‘Yes’ and this year I’m putting even more time and effort into it to push as hard as possible to see it there is a future for it.

Bottom line: what’s your big dream? What’s the difference you’re trying to make?

I am very aware that, on its own, giving away scarves isn’t going to cure homelessness. However it does create awareness of the situation and shows those receiving scarves that there are people who care about them. That in itself makes a real difference to a homeless person.

I would love to see the TwoToo concept being extended to other areas of need, it is very transferable to simply say ‘Buy x and we’ll give another x to someone else who needs it’. This concept can be sustainable as we’re not asking people to give us something with nothing in return. If they buy a TwoToo they are getting something in return for their payment.

Thank you so much for your time, Steve, your goal of donating over 500 scarves this winter is a pretty big one; remind us where we can go to buy a scarf and help the homeless.

Thank you for your interest in TwoToo. A full range of scarves for men and women are available and start at £5 + p+p each (which includes the cost of the scarf that’s given away).

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