Welcome to the Dublin Simon Community Shops page, your local social enterprise. Our shops two primary functions are to raise much needed funds and to provide a working environment in which people can receive training and support.

Fundraising

Firstly we ask our donors and supporters to donate quality items to our shops that we can re-use and re-cycle! We stock our shops with high-quality goods both new and reused so not only are you getting value for money when you shop in Dublin Simon Charity Shops, but the money you pay goes directly to Dublin Simon Community services, so we can continue our work with people experiencing homelessness in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan.

Training

Our shops are the perfect environment for people looking to improve their skills and abilities. Our team members get the chance to experience multiple different areas of work including spending time in our warehouse, on the shop floor, in our stockrooms and in our delivery vans. All roles include training in customer service, stock management, cash management, IT skills, health and safety and manual handling to name but a few. All your donations help to provide this service to the community.

Shop locations

Dublin Simon Community Charity Shop
57 Lower Camden Street
Dublin 2

Ph: 01 475 7012

Opening Hours:

  • Mon – Fri: 10:30am – 5:30pm
  • Sat: 10:30am – 5pm
  • Sun: CLOSED

Dublin Simon Community Charity Shop
116 Thomas Street
Dublin 8

Ph: 01 677 4857

Temporarily CLOSED for renovations


“Your unwanted items may be someone else’s treasures”. Did you know that while 75% of women apparently have 14 items of clothing that never see the light of day – worth a collective €70bn – charity shops still report a lack of quality in the donations they receive! We need all of those clothes you bought on impulse and can’t return, the unwanted birthday and Christmas gift sets and the clocks, mirrors and other household items that no longer go with the décor of your home!

Benefits of Reuse, Recycle!

There are many environmental benefits of reuse, recycle. Shopping in and donating to Dublin Simon Community Charity Shops means customers have a low carbon footprint and no further energy or resources are required to create these goods. Reusing goods such as textiles and books prevents them from being sent to landfill: instead, they can be sold on to raise money for homeless services.

Did You Know?

“In 2005 Irish charity shops ensured that more than 10,000 tons of clothes, shoes and household textiles, which would otherwise have been dumped in landfill, were either reused or recycled. This is equivalent of 1000 40-foot containers. More than 80% of the items were reused; the balance was recycled either as re-carded wool or cotton or as insulation and padding in the motor industry.”

Waste Management Hierarchy

“It takes more than 7,000 litres of water to produce a kilo of cotton! Whilst prevention and minimisation are the ideal, it is clear that given our Irish weather, we need clothes, shoes and bed linen. So what can you do?”

Everybody Wins!

Donors and supporters are able to help the people we work with everyday by donating and helping us raise money – feel good while you de-clutter your life! Dublin Simon Community gains both stock and the chance to take our message to a new audience, while being good to the environment! Plus, you also get to shop at recession busting prices for that something different…

We are extremely grateful to all of our donors for donating to our shop. We do however have a list of the items that we can take and those we cannot.

What We Can Take

Men, women’s and children’s clothing:

  • Suits, Shirts, Jackets and trousers
  •  Dresses, Skirts, Blouses and tops
  •  Jumpers, cardigans, and Coats
  •  Jeans, shorts, leggings and tracksuits
  • Unused underwear
  • Nightwear, shoes and runners

Weddings:

  • Wedding Dresses, Bridesmaid Dresses, Flower girl dresses/Pageboy suit
  • Groomsmen suits
  • Unwanted/unused wedding gifts, Wedding accessories – tiaras, veils, keepsakes
  • Holiday shop
  •  Sun dresses, hats and sunglasses
  •  Beach bags, beach towels and sandals, Bikinis, sarongs and wraps

Accessories:

  •  Handbags, Jewellery, belts, hats, scarves, gloves

Bric-a-brac:

  • Crockery, pictures, ornaments, clocks, vases, frames, tableware, glasses
  • Linen, Duvet covers, Pillow cases, sheets, throws, curtains
  • Books, books and more books

Electrical:

  • All household items that are in working order and in a safe condition e.g. no loose or exposed wires, no cracks, no burn marks. Our staff are certified PAT testers (portable appliance testing) and all items are tested before being resold

We Will NOT Accept the Following Items

  • Clothes that are in extremely bad condition (Please leave these in your local clothing bank for rag collection)
  •  Duvets/Blankets/Pillows/mattresses
  •  Cosmetics/Make-up/Body creams etc (For Health & Safety reasons)
  • Second-hand baby toys (For Health & Safety reasons)

In order to keep costs of disposal down, if an item is deemed unsuitable for donation, we may refuse. Please do not take offence to this. Thank you for your support.

Check your donations against the checklist before donating.

Thank You for your support!

We are a member of the Irish Charity Shops Association We are always looking for volunteers to join our shops. All training will be provided. If you are interested please contact our Volunteer Office on 01 889 5800.

Irish Charity Shops Association ICSA

We are a member of the Irish Charity Shops Association whose aim is to pool expertise and join forces to promote common interests and to help members run their shops more effectively and efficiently. Please look out for the ICSA Logo which is displayed by all members in their shops and on their collection bags that you receive through your door. Be aware of Bogus Collectors and if in doubt ask to see the logo. For more information on Bogus Collectors please click here www.icsa.ie.

Dublin Simon Community accredited with quality standard for their contribution to a circular economy

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Charity receives CRNI accreditation for their charity shops

Dublin Simon Community have today (28 February) been officially awarded with the ReMark ReUse Quality Standard of Excellence at a ceremony in their Camden Street Shop in Dublin.

A pilot programme run by the Community Reuse Network of Ireland (CRNI) and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dublin Simon Community is the second organisation to receive the accreditation for their charity shops.

Welcoming the accreditation, Social Enterprise Manager with Dublin Simon Community, Sharon Keogh said:

“Our shops have two important purposes – to raise much needed funds for our homeless services and to provide a working environment for our clients to receive training as a potential pathway to out of homelessness and to employment. Our aim is to deliver all this work to the highest standard possible and this accreditation emphasises our commitment to delivering a first-rate service to our customers while providing an excellent standard of training for our clients. We stock our shops with high quality goods both new and reused so to ensure customers are getting value for money.”

“Our team members get the chance to experience multiple different areas of work including spending time in our warehouse, on the shop floor, in our stockrooms and in our delivery vans. All roles include training in customer service, stock management, visual merchandising, cash management, IT skills, health and safety and manual handling to name but a few.”

Speaking about the initiative, Claire Downey from CRNI said that Ireland’s ReMark ReUse Quality Standard of Excellence was established to address consumer concerns regarding the quality and safety of reused goods.

“According to consumer research we commissioned in September 2017, only 23% of Irish Consumers bought second-hand (reused) goods in the last six months. 59% cited quality and 43% cited safety as barriers to purchase. This Quality Standard is a way of addressing these quality and safety concerns through a formalised accreditation process.

“Achieving this quality standard means that Dublin Simon Community are leaders in Quality Reused Goods and are championing a Circular Economy. In particular, the accreditation highlights commitment to:

  1. Quality: Goods are repaired, restored, or ‘reimagined’ by trained staff to extend their usable life.
  2. Reuse: Participant organisations establish policies and set goals and metrics that further their social mission as well as the aims of the circular economy.
  3. Safety: Goods have been inspected and tested to a rigorous safety standard.”