A New York organisation is helping homeless members of the LGBTQ community by knitting garments to keep them warm.
Knit the Rainbow, founded by Austin Rivers, has already handmade and then delivered, through non-profit organisations, over 25,000 winter pieces to young people who need them.
Hobbying to help
LGBTQ youths make up as many as 40 percent of the homeless youth population in the US, and Rivers realised the difference he could make while enjoying his new hobby of knitting during the Covid pandemic.
He said he wasn’t able to build a shelter, but he knew that he could create a nonprofit organisation that could help young people living in the often-cold climate of New York City.
Countrywide assistance
Knit the Rainbow was started in April 2020 and now has a community of around 550 knitters across the country who donate handmade garments, either made with the help of knitting kits or with supplies already held at home.
While many people buy knitting kits from companies such as woolcouturecompany.com/collections/knitting-kits to supply friends and family, Knit the Rainbow and its supporters have given out more than 25,000 garments to youths from the LGBTQ community in Detroit, Chicago, New Jersey and New York.
Days of Action
The organisation holds Days of Action where volunteers head to Rivers’ apartment to unbox garments sent in by knitters from around America. They then pack them up in boxes, marking them for their destinations. These are delivered to distributing nonprofit organisations on distribution days organised by the group.
Rivers and volunteers make many deliveries themselves, as they work to keep as many young members of the LGBTQ community out of the cold.
Rivers says that the knitted items donated not only help keep the homeless young people warm, they also make them realise that they are not alone in what may be very difficult times of their lives. He urges them to think of the many knitters thinking of them and to keep going for themselves.
