Good Neighbor Podcast: Mississauga

Thrift Store Prices Walked In; SafetyNet Said, “Nope”

• Alanja Simmons

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What if the help your neighbours need is as close as your closet? We sit down with Bill Shields, founder of SafetyNet Charities, to explore a rare model that keeps essentials truly free for families: clothing, diapers, housewares, and furniture while offering one-to-one tutoring that helps stop poverty from passing to the next generation. With more than 9,000 families served and 100–150 new families added each month, Bill shares what demand looks like on the ground and why generosity, paired with smart systems, can scale without losing heart.

We dig into a stubborn local myth that affluent areas like Oakville don’t face hardship and counter it with data: over 40% of SafetyNet’s families come from Oakville, and 12–15 people experiencing homelessness visit daily. Bill explains how clients discover support through referrals and search, why donors choose SafetyNet to keep their items free to families, and how 2,000–2,500 pounds of clothing flow in each day without turning into a thrift store. Nothing goes to landfill; unusable items are recycled, making this a practical, community-driven loop that reduces waste and increases dignity.

You’ll hear the story behind a social worker’s decision to build a zero-cost service hub, the impact of targeted tutoring on confidence and graduation paths, and the simple steps to get involved donate clothing, furniture, and new diapers; volunteer; or spread the word so families can find help fast. If you’ve ever wondered whether your extra coat, crib, or Saturday afternoon could change a neighbour’s week, this conversation shows exactly how.

If this resonated, share it with a friend, subscribe for more local stories that matter, and leave a review to help others find us. Want to pitch in today? Visit SafetyNet Services to donate, volunteer, or learn more.


Intro:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Alanja Simmons.

Alanja Simmons:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a charity? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Bill Shields. How's it going, Bill?

Bill Sheilds:

It's going well, thank you. And yourself?

Alanja Simmons:

I'm great. We're excited to learn about you and your business. Tell us about Safety Net Charities.

Bill Sheilds:

Well, SafetyNet Charity is a charity I started in 2006. And in that time, we've uh assisted close to 9,000 families, and we increase by 100 to 150 new families monthly. We offer uh free clothing, free diapers, uh, free housewares, and free furniture for uh just uh financially disadvantaged families. And to work with generational poverty, we offer one-to-one um free tutoring for children and youth who are struggling at school but whose parents can't afford tutoring.

Alanja Simmons:

And how did you get into business?

Bill Sheilds:

Well, um, I've been in social work or social service work since uh oh 1984, 1985. And when we moved out to Oakville in 2003, we noticed that there was kind of a lack of services out here. Um, never attended for the charity to be quite this big, but uh, you know, I just wanted to help out uh with families, and it's just become this, right? You know, uh quite a busy charity.

Alanja Simmons:

And what is the myths or misconceptions in the industry?

Bill Sheilds:

Well, I I I I don't know about the uh misconceptions. I th I think with uh now we service Oakville, we service Mississauga, uh, we service all of Halton. I think sometimes um there's a misconception that you know there's no issues or no poverty in Oakville. Um but I mean I just did the statistics today, and you know, over 40% of our families that we service uh come from uh Oakville. Um and then the rest are divided out between Halton and uh Mississauga, Brampton. Um yeah, so it's just you know the higher percentage of people we're servicing in Oakville right now. In fact, we see up to 12 to 15 homeless uh people coming through our place a day.

Alanja Simmons:

Wow. We know marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them?

Bill Sheilds:

Well, it depends. For as far as clients, we we're uh we work with a lot of different community services who refer to us. Um and and people seem to find us. I mean, if you Google where to get free clothing, people can find us. Um, so I would say about 40% of the people, maybe maybe 50% of the people come through our door find us on their own. And the other 57% are uh referrals. Now, the other side of the business is getting people to donate clothes. We bring in 2,000 pounds to 2,500 pounds um a day of clothing. And I think the people who target us are people who sort of care about uh the community and the environment, and they want to know that the clothing they're donating is going uh free to families. Um, that's quite rare. There's very few uh clothing banks left where the clothing is free. Most places have become you know thrift stores, and the families we work with simply can't afford um to go to a thrift store, so uh um they come in for the free clothes.

Alanja Simmons:

And have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?

Bill Sheilds:

Uh my own podcast? No, it never really occurred to me. This is actually the first podcast I've ever done. Normally we do like news stations, what have you, do a lot of interviews. Um, but never really uh has it occurred to me about doing my own podcast. Um I never thought about it. This is as I said, this is the first time I've done a podcast.

Alanja Simmons:

Yeah. And outside of work, what do you do for fun?

Bill Sheilds:

Oh, I do a lot of things. I um one of my um sons involved in rep hockey, and and you know, I'm a trainer on his team, so we do that. Uh I fish, I read, um, play uh a lot of sports myself, work out. Uh, those are the things that I enjoy.

Alanja Simmons:

Bill, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about safety net charities.

Bill Sheilds:

Well, if you'd like to donate clothes and you want to know that it goes free to families, um you can donate to SafetyNet Charities. You can look us up uh on the web under um safety net services.ca. And as well, we take uh housewares for families, and again, those all go free to families. Um we um we take furniture as well, as well uh as um um new diapers for families. Um so if people want to donate, please look us up on the web and your uh clothing goes free to families. Nothing goes into the landfills, even stuff that we can't use is recycled.

Alanja Simmons:

And how can our listener's learn more about Safety Net Charities?

Bill Sheilds:

Yeah, if you if you uh again, I refer you back to our website, uh Safetynetservices.ca, um, we have all the information on there. Look us up, and it's again it's quite detailed of what we take, our hours, and how you can help out. Even if you'd like to volunteer, um, you can do that. Um register for that on the website.

Alanja Simmons:

Well, Bill, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and Safety Net SafetyNet Charities all the best moving forward.

Bill Sheilds:

Well, thank you for having me on. It's much appreciated.

Ontro:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpmississauga.com. That's gnpmississauga.com or call 3653639780.