Our Story So Far

We started Ideas2Action on 31 October 2013 and now have 5 trustees, 60 volunteers and one part-time member of staff.

Our first project in 2014 was Win-on-Waste – Canford Heath. Following on from that we expanded our We Need That recycling directory into Bournemouth. Since then we have gradually increased our project portfolio to the stage where we had 16 monthly Win on Waste sessions across Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, Corfe Mullen, Wimborne and a drop off point at Holton Lee. Due to Covid-19, our sessions were forced to close in 2020, but we have been working hard to build our network again, leading to our currently running 9 sessions in Dorset.

Our We Need That directory has a sister directory called Decluttering? We Need That which is aimed at people who are having a clear out and rather than take items to the tip or throw them in the bin, they can refer to the directory and offer them to a good cause.

Our Win on Waste on Wheels project ran for a year from May 2018 to April 2019. This project aimed to help isolated, older housebound people who were physically unable to attend a Win on Waste session in person to donate items from their waste which were collected by volunteers.

As well as recycling projects in 2016, we ran Hunt the House: are your house numbers emergency friendly? Funded by the Dorset Police & Crime Commissioner’s Safer Dorset Fund, this project ran as a pilot on Canford Heath in Poole and showed the importance of having visible house numbers so that the emergency services are able to find homes quickly and possibly even save a life.

Our Mission Statement

To support and enhance the lives of people living in the UK by offering groups access to our portfolio of recycling projects; to assist them when identifying solutions for local need which benefit the environment and local people.