For hundreds of families each year, ReLove is turning empty houses into homes – and giving people escaping domestic and family violence a chance to rebuild their lives with dignity.
ReLove is a free furniture store that helps people escaping homelessness and domestic violence to furnish their new homes. By rescuing furniture from landfill and creating a real shopping experience, ReLove provides more than just household items – it gives people back their voice and choices.
Walking into ReLove's free store feels like stepping into IKEA. The pink floor and styled displays create a genuine shopping experience, with one crucial difference: everything is free.
ReLove caters for people who are starting over – many of whom are escaping domestic and family violence, experiencing homelessness, or coming out of incarceration.
“People can come and shop for free, and they get that dignity and agency to choose how they want to style their home,” says ReLove co-founder Ren Fernando.
ReLove rescues furniture from corporate relocations, hotels, and retailers, and saves about 2,000 tonnes of furniture and homeware from landfill each year. Over four years, they've rescued close to 10,000 tonnes.
High-value items that aren’t suitable for homes are sold through Re-Story. This is a social enterprise that funds parts of ReLove's work.
ReLove co-founder Ben Stammer explains that “with every $500 we raise in Re-Story, that's furnishing a full home”.
What makes ReLove special isn't just the furniture – it's the dignity of choice.
Clients shop with their caseworker and select everything they need to turn a house into a home, including beds, linen, cutlery and artworks. For people who have experienced trauma, this experience can be transformative.
“Their choice matters, their voice matters, because that's been taken away from them,” explains Ren. “Kindness and love matter.”
Michelle, a Women’s Housing Company client, says: “Being able to put my own things in my own place, furnish it how I want, being able to decorate it in the way I like, having security ... Some days I wake up, I feel like it's not real.”
ReLove helps about 1,000 families a year with only 11 staff. Volunteers and corporate partners like Bankstown Sports Club are essential to the running of their work.
“We're rebuilding homes, we're rebuilding lives, and that needs a lot of hands,” says Igor Vicente, corporate volunteer manager at ReLove.
Michael Hanratty, Sporting and Community Partnerships Manager at Bankstown Sports Club says the corporate volunteer experience at ReLove helps his team to find purpose in the work.
“[Volunteering] provides a sense of connection and purpose for our staff,” he says. “What [ReLove] is doing is a great thing – salvaging furniture, repurposing it, and providing it to people who do need it.”
To show the impact ReLove is making in the lives of children impacted by domestic and family violence, Ren shares a story about a young boy in Year 9 who, on a shopping appointment picked up a small stone saying, “follow your dreams”.
When the ReLove team was setting up his room weeks later, “he pulled it out of his pocket and put it on the bedside table …” continues Ren. “…he’s following his dream.”
Research shows moments of kindness profoundly impact people leaving violent situations. At ReLove, clients experience being seen, heard, and listened to.
For the delivery team, the impact is immediate. Warehouse manager Nylo Gyzen says, “We see clients come through and the next day, we're changing their lives.”
#helpinghandstvau #makingtheworldabetterplace #documentary #impactmakers #impact #gamechangers #socialgood #tvshowforsocialgood #becabbott #relove #restory #furniture #homelessness #domesticviolence #sustainability #secondchance #dignity #choice #community #volunteering
