The Link Family and Community Centre aims to bridge the gaps in the community by providing…read moresomething for everyone. They offer programmes for young people (Project23), adults struggling with addiction and housing issues (MARC), senior citizens (Lunch Club & Drop-In), parents and babies (Tots Time), and language classes for those for whom English is not their first language. They also provide volunteering opportunities for people to come and get involved, using their gifts and talents to help others and create a much more inclusive community where no-one should feel alone or of no value. A great place doing a great thing.

There comes a time when you need more from life than shoes and trinkets (yes, really!). You all…read moreknow how cool growing your own is at the minute, right? You may even know that waiting lists for council allotments are as long as the M2. Well, there is a way to have your salad and carrots and eat them, too. At David Morrow's private allotments (up behind Ice Bowl in Dundonald, near Streamvale Open Farm). There is a whole other world of growing-your-own going on up there. The views are mid-boggling - you can literally stand on some of the allotments and gaze over Strangford and over Belfast Lough the other way. There are all sorts of people there, too - a real community. Retired people, families with dogs and toddlers, University professors - they're all there, planting and weeding and munching. There are picnics and barbecues and rows of sunflowers. Tidy allotments all in rows, higgelty piggelty ones and even some with chickens. You might never have thought of doing something like this , but lots of people club together and maybe take one between a couple of families (you pay by the year, per square foot - it's not that pricey). David is always happy for people to go and have a look - why not pop up and see for yourself?

Yet another of Bangor's many, many chairty shops and a pretty standard one. Its based right on high…read morestreet which means that it is easy to get to and parking usually isn't too bad., If you can't get parked right outside you can pop to the car park behind Donegan's bar or it isn't too long a walk from the large Marina car park. The staff in this wee shop are friendly enough and its nice and big so there is plenty of stuff in here if you enjoy having a bit of a root around for clothes, books, old vinyl or general nick-nacks. Its always nice to shop here because you know the money is going to an excellent cause and its a great place to recycle old clothes and be safe in the knowledge that you are doing your bit.

Being one of the more unusual charity shops in Bangor (ie. the fact that it's a British Red Cross…read moreshop, rather than the actual shop itself), I decided to pop in and have a look. It was pretty busy on this sunny day, and despite the shop being a huge one, there wasn't a whole lot of room for a look. I nearly ended up treading on someone's toes (literally) whilst having a duke through the lady's clothes section, which proved to have nothing of interest anyway, although there was a rather good selection. As for the rest of the shop, well, it was distinctly average in charity shop terms. Not that average is bad, and I'm not too sure what a brilliant charity shop would look like, but still, there wasn't anything too exciting to be found....just the usual CDs, books, furnishings and other bits and bobs. So, my sister and I left it there (as in we decided to leave...we weren't going to be carrying a charity shop around with us anytime soon), and decided to go on our merry way. And that was that. I would definitely call back another, less busy day to check out the stock again. This Red Cross shop definitely has a whole lot of potential.

what can I say, I'm a sucker for a charity shop! I love a good hoke among the clothes, shoes and…read morebags and often I find a wee gem, a wee diamond in the rough. Holywood is no exception when it comes to good charity shops, in fact I would say they have some of the best. On a stinking wet Wednesday recently I called to see if I could buy an umbrella - the wee lady hunted high and low for me and while she was doing that I looked at the shoes - some lady with great taste had obviously just had a clear out. I was able to pick up a gorgeous pair of red patent Kurt Gieger's for £6.00! She didn't have an umbrella but the rain didn't bother me as much as I left with my lovely, well broken in beauties!

H.O.P.E stands for Helping Other People Everywhere, which apart from being an nice acronym, doesn't…read morereally tell us a lot about the actual charity. The sign on the shop did, however, inform me that Comber Christian Centre ran it, so at least that was something. HOPE (as it will be henceforth referred to) is basically a little charity shop that has just about everything in it. Women's clothes, men's clothes, children's clothes, knick-knacks, household goods, DVDs, books and the like. It actually had quite a good variety, much more so than many of the charity shops I'd been in previously. The selection of books was particularly notable...there were tons of them! I noticed that on Wednesdays (which just so happened to be the day I was in), they have a half price clothing day, which I thought was pretty good. Unfortunately, try as I might, I just couldn't find any clothes that I really liked, so that was that idea out the window, but a good marketing ploy nonetheless. HOPEfully you'll want to check it out now...

HOPE is a charity shop that sells well just about anything that people will give them and I love it…read morefor that! It's more like a bric an brac shop than anything else. You can find yourself wondering around for an hour just hoping to find something awesome. The past few times I've been there I haven't really managed to find anything I want/need. It appears that new things haven't been brought in, in a while as it hasn't changed as regularly as some other charity shops. Charity shops are always for a good cause, so I always recommend having a look around them before you go to the main chain stores in your local city centre.

Te is a community space used for various activities…read more Set up to be the beacon of the community. Has workshops,counselling.. I was in here for a meeting. Just using their meeting room for a charity I volunteer with. The place seems quite spacious with numerous rooms. There is also an upstairs. It's located near Yorkgate shopping centre. It's is inside some terrace houses that where converted.