Kitty’s Laundrette: Circularity as Community Action News Archive “Everyone needs to wash their clothes in one way or another.” Never has there been a more powerful mission statement for a creative social enterprise. Kitty’s Laundrette (77 Grasmere Street, L5) is a laundrette. They offer affordable, eco friendly, washing facilities for anyone who needs them. They also happen to run one of the most exciting creative programmes in the country, rooted absolutely in L5. This year alone, they are starting a new programme of coffee mornings for parents of SEN children, running a huge campaign of hygiene insecurity, curating Art in the Park using Everton Park as a huge community canvas, and have just secured funds to buy an electric van, extending their laundry business to a commercial scale. Over the next few years, that’s not only going to extend the model of Kitty’s indefinitely, but it also makes a permanent and continuing dent in their, and their network’s carbon footproint. It has concrete impacts. Different organisations approach circularity in different ways, but Kitty’s continues to set a beautiful example for everybody. But circularity doesn’t have to be single big sweeps for impact, it can be about the way organisations are set up, why they were founded, and how they source their materials, or what happened to them later. Much of it is about thought and impact: how you effort makes change that makes other people’s lives better, and makes your environment more rewarding as a result. Breaking the Silence on Hygiene Insecurity, a project led by Kitty’s and LJMU, seeks to understand not just the numbers but the impact of hygiene poverty in the UK. How the inability to wash clothes, take showers or heat water impacts individuals and communities. The existence of Kitty’s at all is already helping that, but now there is a targeted scheme offer free washing and drying. It aims improve health, reduce stigma, remove shame, and improve opportunities for people using it. The scheme is managed by referral from community organisations in North Liverpool, but you can self-refer too. To find out more, visit www.kittyslaunderette.org.uk/kittys-laundry-services/#free To stay up to date with their other work, follow @kittyslaundry on Instagram — Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith