Re-use and recycling are at its core, with both staff and trainees kept busy by the steady stream of items donated on a daily basis, ranging from clothes to bicycles and almost everything in between.
Items are initially sorted and assessed for their quality in the workshop and warehouse adjacent to the shop, before they are given a new lease of life through a scheme of up-cycling, which means creating a product of higher value than the original.
They are then put up for sale in the shop. Customers can get larger items, such as furniture, delivered by one of GO’s two delivery trucks.
The charity estimates that it has diverted more than 600 tons of waste from landfill by up-cycling and selling previously unwanted goods.
This has included the restoration of 1,471 bicycles.
Other services offered include house clearance and, in partnership with the States, the removal of items from the waste stream at the Longue Hougue recycling centre.
GO general manager Michael Bougourd, a former prison officer who assumed his current role at the end of last year, said the range of items the charity received meant that trainees working on-site were constantly being exposed to a wide variety of tasks.
These include disassembling plug sockets, repairing furniture and identifying items which were potentially quite valuable.
‘It engages them and makes them really focus on what they’re doing, which is so important,’ he said.
In the workshop, trainees are taught how to carry out more complex up-cycling tasks, which sometimes require using equipment with safety risks.
Machines which are too dangerous for trainees to use are clearly labelled, ensuring best safety practice is maintained.
‘We evaluate the trainees’ level very carefully before deciding what they may be capable of doing,’ said Mr Bougourd.
‘We have one supervisor to three trainees, and they’ll be taught things like smoothing, stripping and vanishing, basically anything that helps restore what may well have been quite a knackered item when it first arrives at the shop.’
He said the speed with which trainees progressed varied, ranging from a few weeks to months and even years.
‘Some trainees have been here for years in the past.
‘Every three months their progress is reviewed. If they’re doing well, that’s the point where we start to think about whether they’re ready to enter employment.’
86 trainees have been supported over the past three years, with 20 of them moving into mainstream employment and 10 joining the GO team permanently.
However, the training comes at a considerable cost.
Mr Bougourd said the GO100 campaign backed by the Guernsey Press would enable his team to offer trainees more services, including IT and administrative skills.
‘We’ve got staff who will be doing courses on AI,' he said.
‘That’s where things are going, so we have to be prepared.
‘If we stop developing our skills, we will start going backwards.’
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