Racks of quality second-hand clothing were wheeled into the Dubbo Neighbourhood Centre on Tuesday for disadvantaged Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
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The centre was the first delivery point of an inaugural Indigenous clothing drive.
A social enterprise, Pass it on Clothing & Co, and a start-up business with connections to Brewarrina, Baawan Group Australia, joined forces this year in support of the 20 per cent of homeless people identified as Torres Strait Islander or Indigenous.
They placed a purpose-built clothing bin in businesses to accept staff donations to the three-month drive.
About 2750 pieces of men’s and women's clothing were collected for distribution in Western NSW.
Sydney-based co-founders of Pass it on Clothing & Co, Chris Vagg, Michael Buettner and Olga Puga, and co-founders of Baawan Group Australia, Jason Hardy and Matthew Sorensen, made the journey to Dubbo on Tuesday before heading north-west.
They were scheduled to drop off the free clothing to five other service providers in Brewarrina, Weilmoringle, Walgett and Bourke.
Mr Vagg said the benefits to people of choosing and wearing the clothes were confidence and pride.
“Quite often, especially in Sydney, the disadvantaged feel like they are not part of society,” he said.
Mr Hardy, who has family living at Brewarrina, said he hoped the clothing would be “well received by everyone”.
“Like the saying goes, we’re not going to be able to change the world but hopefully we can change the world for one person,” he said.
