Wood Street Mission

Who we are

We provide practical help to help meet children’s day-to-day needs and improve their life chances. Through Family Basics we provide struggling families with children’s clothes, bedding and baby equipment, and toys and books which are important for children’s wellbeing and development.

We promote engagement in education by helping families with the costs of going to school through SmartStart and run Book Roadshows in local schools to promote reading and improve children’s literacy. We also provide toys for children to have presents on Christmas Day.

We also raise awareness about child poverty through our communications, holding events and giving talks at schools, businesses and groups.

We help thousands of children and their families every year, and all our services are free for families to access on referral.

As an independent charity we rely on our supporters to raise and donate funds and items, and to raise awareness of our work. We have hundreds of volunteers helping us each year, who are essential to our work.

Wood Street Mission was established in 1869 making us 156 years old this year! To learn more about our history supporting local people, read more here, or visit our archive at John Ryland’s Library.

Our culture and values

Today we no longer have a religious mission but remain dedicated to improving the lives and life chances of children living in poverty in Manchester and Salford. We still operate from the same building and whilst we continue to provide basic family necessities such as clothing, bedding and toiletries, our focus now is on improving the life chances of children through projects focused on education and literacy. Our work aims to help break the cycle of poverty by engaging more children in their education, to gain the necessary life skills to prevent them from being the next generation needing our help. As an independent charity still, we continue to rely on support from individuals, schools, churches, voluntary groups and businesses to respond to the needs of the families we help, and are grateful as ever for their continued enthusiasm and support.