In Your Shoes was founded by Kids Off The Kerb volunteer, Fran Davide, and was piloted throughout several schools in Melbourne during 2008. Subsequently, In Your Shoes received great support from students participating in the University of Melbourne’s Student Ambassador Leadership Program who helped expand the project. More than 100 schools have now participated in the In Your Shoes program and more than 50,000 pairs of shoes have been collected.The program operates as follows. Individuals or groups organise a shoes collection program (either over several days or weeks) and, upon completion, Kids Off The Kerb arranges to pick up the shoes and transport them to its warehouse space in Thomastown, Victoria, where they are then sorted. Depending on the quality and quantity of the shoes received, they are recycled or redistributed to disadvantaged individuals and communities directly through Kids Off The Kerb’s and other charity outreach projects, or by export to developing countries.Information packs with guidelines and marketing materials have been prepared to assist schools with their In Your Shoes collection. Interested schools are invited to download our Information Booklet for Schools.

Aside from schools, Kids Off The Kerb also welcomes the participation of other groups in the In Your Shoes program including companies and community organisations. Runners and running event organisers have been a good source of collections for In Your Shoes. For example, Kids Off The Kerb has collected shoes at the Run Melbourne event and the Tough Mudder event at Phillip Island, and the running store, Sole Motive, has regularly donated shoes.For more information, please email inyourshoes@kidsoffthekerb.org.