After three months of service, the Corridor Community Action Network‘s (CCAN) free mobile closet has hit a roadblock, namely a lack of drivers. Since its initial launch in November, the Clothing Cruise has provided winter, professional and school clothes to over 190 people in the area, said CCAN Director Mandi Nichols.
While demand for the mobile closet has remained constant, CCAN has been unable to bring its Clothing Cruise to some local events it had planned to attend because its driver wasn’t available.
“We only have one [driver] right now. If he is working or has anything else going on, we’re not able to attend,” she said. “We’ve had to turn down requests to attend a couple of different events … just because we didn’t have a driver available.”
The mobile closet has stopped at seven events in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids since its launch, many of which were focused on individuals who face transportation barriers.
CCAN began working on its Clothing Cruise in 2020 after members learned that there wasn’t community closet available to who live in isolated areas. The group spend months raising funds to buy, customize and insure the 33-foot RV, as well as stock it with plenty of clothes. The initial test drive in November helped 40 people get winter weather gear like ponchos, gloves and new socks.
“We had a lot of people asking us about regular clothing — school clothes, work clothes, things like that — so we started reaching out to a lot of the agencies that we network and work with in the area, and found out that there wasn’t really a community-wide resource for that,” Nichols said. “We originally started with a couple of sheds that we were sharing access to with other organizations, while we came up with the money for the RV.”
CCAN began in 2019 when Nichols created a Facebook group to help connect people to volunteer opportunities in the area. In addition to services like the Clothing Cruise, the group provides support for other local organizations, and posts daily updates and information for direct mutual aid.
“Corridor Community Action Network serves to facilitate resident participation and empowerment, raising awareness about opportunities to improve the quality of life for all individuals in the Iowa Corridor,” Nichols told Little Village in December. “Over time it grew and changed in response to local needs, eventually starting some of our own initiatives and becoming the nonprofit that we are today.”
But without drivers, the mobile closet isn’t that mobile. To become a driver, email Nichols at director@corridorcan.com. CCAN’s insurance company will need to approve the driver, so driver’s license information will need to be provided.
“Upon approval, we have a sign-up Genius that we have all the dates for events that we’d like to attend, and after someone’s approved, they can just look through that and sign up for whatever events work for them,” Nichols said.
People can also volunteer with CCAN to sort and organize donations, hold clothing drives or fundraisers, and/or donate clothes, which can be dropped off or mailed to Iowa City Fab Lab at 870 S Capitol St, Iowa City, IA 52240. CCAN also accepts financial donations through the Clothing Cruise GoFundMe.
