Our mission is to create a vast library of useful things in a friendly space where the community can borrow items and learn how to use them.

We want people spending less money on things they don’t necessarily need to own (and the storage associated with those things), we want to reduce waste eventuating from the disposal of unwanted items and reduce our carbon footprint by enabling access to local resources near our homes and workplaces.

Some examples of the type of things we already have in our inventory including camping equipment like tents and camp chairs, party equipment like a PA and chocolate fountain and tools for DIY like jigsaws, drills and post hole diggers.

Sharing is also an exciting way for the community to come together. Sharing provides people with the opportunity to try new things and learn new skills with minimal outlay. The Share Shop will be co-located with other community groups it is expected the location will grow to be a vibrant community hub.

The Share Shop is a not-for-profit, incorporated association run by volunteers. We have a core team of eight with a broad network of community-minded people pitching in on various aspects to help us get going. All the things in our inventory to date have been donated by members of the local community.

We have set up our inventory and member management system and our website, we have over 100 things in our inventory and we have an agreement in place to occupy a space in Clyde St, Hamilton North. Annual membership is set at $52 a we want the Share Shop to be accessible for all. We also plan to looking into sponsored memberships through charitable partners once we're up and running.

At the moment we are building our inventory, taking pre-purchased membership through a crowdfunding campaign (https://chuffed.org/project/theshareshop) and documenting core processes with the intention of opening the doors at the end of July.