Baby Basics Swansea
Baby Basics provides clothing, toiletries, and other essentials to families in need. We work with health professionals to give parcels including but not limited to: teenage mums, people seeking asylum, women fleeing domestic abuse and trafficking, care leavers, and low-income families.
About Us
Swansea Baby Basics primarily offers Moses Basket starter packs for newborns to provide everything they need for the first few weeks. Our baskets contain newborn, 0-1 month and 0-3 months baby clothes, blankets, towel, nappies, toiletries for mum and baby and a toy and book. Baskets are made up specifically for each referral with love and care.
For older babies, we can also provide clothing bundles, bedding and toiletries up to 12 months. Thanks to the generous support from our community, we’re normally able to supply larger items such as newborn prams, pushchairs, highchairs, baby bouncers, baby baths and sterilisers.
We work with a variety of agencies around Swansea including health visitors, midwifes, social workers and LACs, and can support other charities and organisations such as Women’s Refuge, asylum seeker support, children’s centres and youth support programmes, churches and schools.
Meet the Team
We are a small team who meet weekly to sort donations and prepare referrals. We are always looking out for anyone who would like to join us on a Friday morning.
Connect
The note which stopped Prince William and Kate in their tracks at a baby bank
We were honoured to have the opportunity to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2022. Princess Catherine talked to us about the need in Swansea, and what further support could be given.
Get Help
We are a referral-only centre, which means that we work with agencies already working with families to provide support. This way we’re not putting another hurdle in front of families to be able to get what they need.
Families
If you are in need of support then please contact your health visitor in the first instance, who will be able to make a referral to us. All children in Wales under 5 will be under the care of a health visitor, if you’re not sure who yours is then ask at your local GP. If you haven’t had your baby yet, then your midwife is also able to make a referral for you. If you have another agency working with your family, such as a social worker, mental health support, or have links with another charity like Swansea Asylum Seekers Support, the Ethnic Youth Support Team, or Faith in Families, then they would also be able to make a referral for you. They just need to know your family well enough to know you need the support you’ve requested.
When they’ve submitted your referral we will advise when it will be available for collection. They will then pick it up and arrange to bring it to you.
If you received a referral when your child was newborn, but need more support as they get bigger, you are welcome to come back for a second referral. Please note that we do not give equipment designed for children aged 6 months upwards in newborn referrals, so you may want to ask for some later.
Make a Referral
To make a referral for a client then please send us an email at swanseababybasics@gmail.com. You can either send in the referral form below, or we can send you the form by email. When we receive your referral we will log it on our system and let you know when we expect to have it ready for collection. At that point we will email you again to confirm.
Collection is on Wednesdays to Fridays, 9.30am-12.30pm at St Thomas Church, SA1 8BP. We require the referrer or a colleague from the same agency to collect the referral and arrange delivery to the client. For large referrals please make sure you bring a suitable size vehicle.
Give Help
See latest donation list
Donating secondhand items
Babies grow quickly and have outgrown their clothes before you know it! We are happy to accept secondhand clothing as long as it is in a good condition- free from stains and tears. We accept newborn, 0-1 month and 0-3 month sized clothing. We are also able to accept second hand blankets, towels, soft toys, muslins and similar items in a good condition.
We are not able to accept secondhand/used toiletries, baby bottles, or electrical items.
Donating equipment
We are very grateful to our generous supporters who donate equipment to our centre. We are always on the look out for Moses baskets and stands as we use them for the majority of our referrals. We are also able to accept second hand prams and pushchairs if they are in a good condition with a working 5-point safety harness and brakes. We are also able to accept high chairs, baby baths, bouncers, microwave sterilisers and playmats.
We are not able to accept car seats, electrical items, baby walkers or jumperoos, cots, stair gates, pods/nests, next to me style cribs or maternity items.
Donating new items
Want to donate but don’t have hand-me-downs? We also accept new items and try and ensure that they are spread out over a number of referrals. The items we can accept are the same as listed above, however we are also able to accept new baby bottles, electrical items and car seats.
We are also often gifted knitted items, which we love as it means we can add a personal touch to the baskets. We are particularly grateful for knitted blankets, as we give out 3 blankets in each basket. The stitching needs to be quite tight so that you can’t fit your little finger through, to make sure that teeny fingers can’t get caught. Please see our knitting guidelines below for more information.
Donating financially
Regular or one-off
We are grateful for any financial donations as these allow us to purchase items such as the new Moses basket mattress that we put in each referral. We are fortunate that we are not charged any running costs so all financial donations will go directly to purchasing supplies to support families in need. We can accept cash or cheques made payable to St Thomas Church- please put a note on the back saying FAO Baby Basics, we have restricted funding held by the church.
Alternatively you can purchase items we need directly through our Amazon Wishlist, which will then be mailed to us.
How can you get involved?
Our volunteer team meets on a Friday morning between 9am and 11.30am in St Thomas Church. During that time we sort donations, make up referrals, and select clothing bundles. We are always on the look out for new members to join the team.
If you’re not able to help on a Friday, there are roles that you could do in your own time. We need volunteers who would be able to collect a clothing bundle, take it home to iron and bring it back the following week. All our referrals are given as a gift, not a hand out, so we try and make them look and feel as nice as possible, therefore all clothes are ironed before they are given out.
It would also be useful for some extra pairs of hands to make bundles of nappies, and occasionally to collect donations.
If you are interested in getting involved send us a message on Facebook or email us at swanseababybasics@gmail.com.