From Brunswick to Bendigo, Glenroy to Geelong West, Uniting Vic.Tas Op Shops are all about giving back to their local communities.
Our dedicated team of 60 staff and 400 volunteers are passionate about creating warm, welcoming and inclusive spaces.
We have 17 stores across metropolitan and regional Victoria and we’re growing. We hope to continue opening new shops each year as well as expand into Tasmania for the first time.
In 2023, we opened several new stores, including in the Bendigo CBD and Brunswick.
The Brunswick op shop, in the heart of busy Victoria Street, also features a fit for purpose warehouse, meeting rooms, sorting rooms and is the new headquarters for our partnerships and enterprise teams.
We continue to forge strong links with employment services creating new opportunities for young people and people with a disability.
This includes using our TADPAC print and design service and selling pottery products made by Fire and Clay in Melbourne.
Through our School Leaver Employment Support (SLES) – Pathways to Employment Program, we help school leavers with training, work and life skills and recently a group of young people have been putting these skills into practice by working at our op shops.
Over the past 12 months, we also celebrated a number of milestones, including the 50th anniversary of our Glenroy Op Shop.
Meanwhile, the City of Stonnington Volunteer Awards recognised the hardworking Prahran Op Shop team with the Community Group Award recognising their outstanding contribution and positive impact on the community.
Uniting Vic.Tas Op Shops Senior Manager Jacob Miller says the motto of our op shops is – discover, donate, volunteer, make a difference.
“Our volunteers tell us all the time about the sense of connection they have with their local community,” Jacob says.
“Every day, our op shops and our people make a difference and help improve the lives of people in need.
“Op shops are places where people gather, where they connect, where they can feel like they’re making a meaningful contribution to their communities.”
When somebody donates and shops at Uniting Op Shops, they are making a difference to their local community and supporting sustainability and the environment.
Every donation made to our op shops goes towards funding the programs Uniting Vic.Tas delivers.
This includes our crisis support and emergency relief services, providing hot meals for people sleeping rough as well as help for families experiencing financial hardship, such as food boxes, and support with living expenses such utility bills, medical and housing costs.
We introduced a new rewards program, RewardingU, where shoppers earn points for every dollar spent at our op shops. RewardingU members can redeem these points on vouchers to spend in-store and be the first to hear about events, sales and new op shop openings.
We’re proud of our op shops, our staff and volunteers, our continued growth and the new opportunities ahead of us in 2024.
