Jess Doyle outlines what the Toy Project charity offers
The Toy Project is a multi-faceted local charity run by the community for the community:
- We recycle unwanted toys and give them to children who need them
- We encourage learning through play by funding Lego workshops, art workshops and storytelling
- We raise money to fund projects such as toy and book libraries, murals and community events
- We educate children about recycling and supporting others
The Toy Project was founded in 2013 by Jane Garfield and Angela Donovan.
Through her role as a primary school teacher, Jane could see how some children had more toys than others and how schools needed resources but had little money for sourcing them. It was through this that she began collecting unwanted toys that she could then distribute to those most in need.
Angela wanted to provide toys and resources for bereaved children through supporting play therapists with toys to use in their sessions with children who had lost a parent, a sibling or a close friend.
The Toy Project started life as a part-time operation run out of Jane’s living room, but it soon outgrew the space and was moved to a small storage room in a community centre in Finsbury Park.
In 2016 we opened a pop-up shop on Junction Road, Archway to raise money to keep the charity going. At the shop, local children and families could now donate their ‘old’ toys and buy ‘new’ ones. Our shop was a big success, and we decided to make the ‘pop-up’ shop into a permanent feature of Archway.
We thrived in our new home but quickly outgrew the space and a year later, we moved a few doors down into our new home at 81 Junction Road in Archway. The larger shop provides more retail space and dedicated areas for sorting and storing toys, such as all the Lego required for our weekly Lego workshops we run at a community centre around the corner. We also rent a small warehouse nearby to store new toys we give as gifts for Christmas and birthday presents
Our approach begins in our shop on Junction Road and our concession in the toy department of Selfridges, where we raise vital funds to support our projects. Children and families are encouraged to donate their unwanted toys and to buy preloved rather than new. This teaches children the vital importance of recycling and reusing, as well as preventing toys and books from ending up in landfill.
The funds raised in the two premises help support our local initiative: providing free, inclusive play opportunities to all members of the community. Our playroom space, also on Junction Road, is an accessible and diverse one, offering opportunities for play and learning from newborn to the over 50s. Sessions include creative writing, Lego building, song-writing, story through art, and arts and crafts.
All the sessions aim to bring together children and adults from across the community and we pride ourselves on ensuring there is apce and support in place to ensure access to all. Developing sessions with qualified teachers and professionals from relevant fields, we ensure all sessions are rich and varied enough to suit the individual needs to those taking part.
It is vitally important for us as a charity that these opportunities remain free and that we are able to offer this to children who may not otherwise have the means to participate in such activities.
Developing and building on children’s cultural capital, as well as continuing this into adulthood, was the driving force behind the opening of our gallery in 2023. Again on Junction Road, this provides an affordable exhibition space to local artists to hold solo or group shows. This has been a huge success and has brought many artists and creatives to us. We work closely with the artists to create opportunities for the local community to engage in the artwork, running weekly artist-led sessions where children are invited into the gallery and make work alongside a weide range of practitioners – something many have not had the opportunity to do otherwise.
We have also run a street festival where many of the artists contributed their talents, including to the creation of a large mural on Bovingdon Close, behind the St John’s pub.
Other things we do are:
- We recycle unwanted toys and give them to children who need them
- We raise money to fund projects such as toy and book libraries, murals and community events
And we support:
- schools and nurseries
- hospitals and hospices
- bereavement centres
- community centres
- migrant, refugee and women’s refuge centres
- prisons and children and families of prisoners
- homeless families
- looked after children
- children with complex needs
- children and families in need
- families who are struggling financially
It is thanks to our two retail spaces that we are able to run as many projects as we do but we also rely hugely on funding and sponsorship. We have volunteer days each Friday, where companies or individuals can come and work alongside our fantastic team. We have recently worked with JoJoMamanBebe, Surreal, and John Lewis, who have kindly spent their staff volunteer days with us and have sponsored our playroom space.
We are always looking for new corporate partnerships and are always happy to facilitate a workshop or volunteer day.
We support children in London and the UK and also send toys to India, Africa and the Caribbean.
You can find out more about the initiatives we support by visiting our ‘Projects’ page.
Jess Doyle is the Arts, Culture and Education Lead at The Toy Project, 81 Junction Road N19 5QU www.thetoyproject.co.uk.
