Meet the Community Award shortlist

Entries to the Community category of the 2023 Good Retail Awards have showcased many impressive examples of innovation to benefit retailers, customers and the industry as a whole.

We would like to take the time to say thank you to all who entered. The number of inspirational stories shared by so many in the industry made it a privilege (and a real challenge!) to narrow them down to the final shortlist.

The Community Award recognises retailers who have made an effort to give back to their community, honouring companies who have gone above and beyond to transform and enhance the lives of others.

Modern Retail is delighted to announce the official shortlist for the Good Retail Awards’ Community Award.

The Community Award shortlist

The Community Award shortlist is as follows:

For Dogs’ Sake Treats

For Dogs’ Sake Treats is a small business making a big difference within the local community, as well as the community of dog owners and charities.

Every year, Celia runs a social media campaign, asking followers and customers to nominate a UK dog charity for the business to make a cash donation to. One dog charity is randomly selected from the recommendations and for every Christmas order received, £1 is donated to the winning charity. In January, the grand total is publicly announced, which is a three-figure sum every year. The charities typically follow up with how the funds have helped them, which grows further awareness of what they do and need.

In recent years, Celia has placed great importance on sharing information and publicity, as well as collaborations. This has included working with local dog groomers, doggy daycares, dog walkers, butchers, printers, pet shops and much more. During lockdown, with many elderly and vulnerable customers, Celia helped by taking people’s dogs out for walks, as well as getting their shopping and being their human contact, albeit from two metres apart.

The work Celia does at For Dogs’ Sake Treats is able to positivelty impact the lives of many dogs, the causes that are close to the hearts of everybody linked to the business, as well as sharing the message that by supporting those in the community, it truly can benefit everybody.

Khushi Kantha

Khushi Kantha (Happy Blankets) is a non-profit social enterprise that works with mothers in Bangladesh to create hand-stitched baby blankets. Their work has created opportunities for mothers to provide for their children and contribute to the circular economy, while having a comprehensive Ethical Policy and being part of the international Fairtrade movement.

The project originally began when Laura used everything she had learned from many years of living and working in Bangladesh to make a difference to the lives of other mothers, whose position she could have easily been in herself, if circumstances were different.

Khushi Kantha rework the Bengali ‘kantha’ tradition of upcycling old cotton saris into baby blankets, in order to meet global product safety standards, while retaining its circular principles. By partnering with a sustainably-minded member of the Bangladeshi garments industry to breathe new life into ‘deadstock’ cotton and a rural weaving cooperative, they launched their first collection through a successful crowdfunding campaign and have since expanded their product range and started to build their first wholesale relationships.

Laura has recently started a Masters in Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University, funded by a full bursary from Chanel, who were inspired by her social enterprise mission and what Khushi Kantha has achieved so far.

Prior Shop

Prior shop is a fully independent, female-founded and staffed shop with a gallery space and community workshop hub that delivers results for makers, as well as the wider community as a whole.

Founded on the belief that the creative community in Bristol deserve real, practical support, Prior Shop has brought the work of 150 independent creatives into a retail space that is normally reserved for big brand names. With each creative being hand-picked by founder, Beck, every one creates low-impact, sustainable, handcrafted work. This has allowed these fantastic makers to be alongside the likes of Oliver Bonas and Ted Baker.

Looking to be more than just a place for makers to share their work in a retail space, Prior Shop supports them practically, by running small business mentoring workshops free of charge, running monthly pop-up ‘meet the maker’ markets to solidify connections between makers and customers, and pitch to press on behalf of artists.

Prior shop has successfully created a space that feeds back into the local economy, supporting local creatives and providing outlets for their work to be celebrated. Their work last year alone injected £150k back into the creative community in Bristol in sales of makers’ work.

Chapter Two Community Bookshop

The Chapter Two Community Bookshop was opened during the pandemic as a warm and welcoming space with a designated community area for local groups to use, meet at and promote local events. The team have introduced a number of inclusive initiatives that have brought the local community together, with all profits going towards sustaining the work of the Hospice of St Francis.

The team at Chapter Two Community Bookshop are volunteers that share a passion for reading, as well as a sense of camaraderie whilst learning new skill sets. With a monthly programme of events, the bookshop has worked to benefit the community, with events including local author signings, creative workshops, a children’s summer book club, Saturday story time, chess club and open mic poetry sessions, as well as visits from Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.

Local groups, businesses and organisations such as The Elgiva Theatre and Chesham Museum are able to use window space to promote events, while schools are also able to promote the likes of carnivals and environmental project. Chapter Two’s Bookshop Specialist, Mark Jackson Hancock has launched a new initiative; The Chesham Library Festival, which will be accessible to all and hosted at a series of venues around the town. He is also planning to launch a literacy project where volunteers listen to people read; whether these are people with literacy problems, or those learning English as a second language.

Congratulations to all in the Community Award Shortlist

We would like to say a huge thank you to all on the Community Award shortlist, as well as to those that entered the category.

For more information on the Good Retail Awards, click here.