Our Community in 2025: In-Kind Donations That Are Making a Difference

At Our Social Fabric, our mission has always been about more than fabric. Every day, we see how textiles, tools, and creative materials can open doors, spark confidence, and strengthen community connections. That’s why we offer in-kind donations to schools, grassroots groups, and non-profit community organizations throughout the year.

We welcome requests from groups that use sewing, crafting, or textiles to support learning, healing, skill-building, or community care - especially when donated materials can help people access creativity who might not otherwise have the chance. Each request is reviewed by our team to ensure the project aligns with our values of waste reduction, community support, and equitable access to creativity.

As we near the end of the first part of 2025, we’re proud to share some of the meaningful projects we’ve supported so far.

🧶 The Rosa Family Foundation – Supporting Threads of Generosity

We were honoured to donate knitting supplies to The Rosa Family Foundation’s Threads of Generosity Guild, a project dedicated to crafting handmade quilts, blankets, and comfort items for people experiencing vulnerable moments.

Their makers create with compassion, and their gifts are distributed to NICU babies, elderly community members and people experiencing homelessness.  Supporting this project helps transform donated materials into tangible comfort for hundreds of people navigating difficult times.

🧵 Surrey Schools – A Sewing Machine for a New Beginning

When Surrey Schools reached out about a refugee family from Afghanistan who had recently arrived in BC, we knew we could help. The family shared their hopes of sewing clothes for their children - something they had done back home to save money and express care.

To support their transition and honour their skills, we donated a sewing machine to help them begin rebuilding routines, independence, and creativity in their new community.

🌸 35th Girl Guide Unit – Scent Cloths for NICU Babies

The 35th Girl Guide Unit approached us with a heartwarming project: sewing scent cloths for NICU infants, which help strengthen the bond between babies and their caregivers during hospital stays.

We donated cotton flannelette, perfect for creating gentle, soft cloths. Once complete, the Girl Guides will deliver them to the ICU unit - a wonderful example of young people using sewing to support families in care.

🎨 Vancouver Children’s Festival – Fabrics for Joyful Spaces

For another year, we were pleased to support the Vancouver Children’s Festival by donating fabrics to decorate their Granville Island spaces. The festival creatively reuses these materials year after year, making each season’s events colourful, welcoming, and sustainably designed.

It’s always a joy to partner with organizations that share our commitment to reuse and resourcefulness.

🧶 Ribbon Community – Yarn for Creativity and Healing

Ribbon Community supports individuals living with HIV, offering essential care and connection. This year, we responded to a meaningful one-off request: providing yarn for a single client who has a deep history of sewing and textile creation in her homeland. By supplying materials, we hope to help her reclaim a creative practice that once brought comfort, expression, and stability.

🛠 Burnaby Community House Repair Café – Supporting Volunteer Fixers

Repair Cafés help keep everyday items out of the landfill by repairing instead of replacing. When Burnaby Community House shared that their sewing volunteers needed supplies, we assembled a repair kit filled with the essentials.

These volunteers regularly mend clothes and blankets, bags, broken zippers and everyday wear-and-tear on garments. Our donation helps them continue offering this free, practical community service.

🧵 Lord Byng Secondary School – Fabrics for Future Makers

To support hands-on learning in the classroom, we donated bolts of fabric to Lord Byng Secondary School. These materials help students explore sewing, design, and creative problem-solving - a skill set that will serve them well both inside and outside the classroom.

🎒 Birchland Elementary School – Supplies for a Creative Maker Space

One of our most recent donations this year supported Birchland Elementary’s Maker Space, which needed materials for a school-wide sewing program. We contributed poly stuffing, felt, plastic canvas, embroidery floss and yarn. 

These materials are already being used across grades. As the year continues, students will also make lavender scent sachets, doll clothing, plushies, and anything else their imaginations bring to life. This donation supports creativity, resilience, hands-on skill-building, and the joy of making something from nothing.

💛 Thank You for Helping Us Support Community Creativity

Every in-kind donation we make is powered by the fabric and materials that flow through Our Social Fabric thanks to our donors, customers, and volunteers. Because of you, we’re able to redirect high-quality materials to community groups that turn them into comfort, learning, creativity, and connection.

If your school or non-profit organization uses textiles in a way that benefits the community, we welcome you to submit an in-kind donation request. Together, we can keep usable materials out of the landfill and put them into the hands of people who will truly benefit.