Our
Story
Over the past two years, each week I’ve volunteered with Time to Read – sitting with a Year 5 boy at his school to improve his reading. He never wore school uniform and the clothes he did wear often had holes in them. The effect of seeing how this boy had to participate in school, and the impact it had on him, saddened and upset me – but drove me to do something to help.
This is where Uniting Uniforms was born.
My vision was simple – to provide uniforms to all children that need one, up and down the country, to give them the sense of belonging all children should have. I envisioned this as scaling to become a circular, community initiative that mixed new and pre-loved uniforms and brought local communities together.
After spending a few months speaking to people in communities, charities and the Social Business Trust, I kicked off a project at my employer Bain & Company – bringing together colleagues from business strategy, innovation and design, we successfully secured funding through Bain’s Social Impact Fund for our first initiative.
In September 2024, all children starting Reception at Oasis Academy South Bank Primary school in Waterloo received a full set of school uniform, as part of our pilot initiative. We had already been working together as part of the Time to Read programme, and we were both delighted to come together to test out our first initiative. The school have been at the heart of the charity from its creation – the Year 6 pupils chose the name Uniting Uniforms, and joined a logo design session at Bain’s offices, with the whole school voting to choose their favourite logo!
This year we are upscaling across five of Oasis’ most vulnerable schools (through a round of fundraising activity). We also want to work with community organisations, retailers, businesses and other charities to help setup community hubs to manage local collection points and circulation of uniforms to local children.
It’s been a really special journey to get this far – I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues at Bain, Oasis Academy South Bank Primary school, and everyone who has played a part in helping create this amazing charity!
Together we will help children feel their best at school.
Emma Southard
Founder and Trustee Chair
Uniting Uniforms
Our Trustees
As a registered charity, we have an experienced board of trustees to guide our work and help us achieve our goals.
Simon Henderson
Simon has over 30 years as CEO, CFO, entrepreneur, investor and at Bain and Company. He is the Global co-Head of Bain’s Performance Improvement Practice.
He is the former Founder and Head of Bain’s Accelerated Performance Transformation solution and other key start-ups inside Bain, as well as being involved in 20+ investments (start-ups, growth businesses etc.) beyond Bain.
A senior member of Bain’s Health and Life Sciences Practice, Simon has also been involved in a number of charitable, not for profit and social impact projects and causes.
Mands Howe
Amanda Howe is a Partner at Bain & Company, based in London, where she helps lead Bain’s global Consumer Products, Retail, and Customer Strategy & Marketing practices. She specialises in human-centered innovation, brand storytelling, and evidence-based design — helping clients create and scale propositions, products, experiences, and communication platforms that resonate deeply with consumers.
Amanda also co-leads Bain’s Consumer Lab — the firm’s centre of excellence for consumer insight and foresight. The Lab is dedicated to spotting and evidencing emerging consumer behaviours and understanding the "why" behind them — helping clients navigate cultural shifts, shape winning innovation strategies, and build brands with lasting relevance.
Prior to Bain, Amanda held leadership roles in innovation firms and agencies, and built an award-winning career as a creative director and copywriter. She is a two-time D&AD award winner and recipient of the Precision Marketing Award.
Amanda holds a B.A. with honours from the Manchester School of Art.
Bahige El Rayes
With over 20 years of international experience across Chicago, New York, London, and Dubai, Bahige has partnered with leading food and consumer companies to drive scalable performance across the full value chain—from agribusiness and ingredients to branded goods and retail.
Bahige is one of Bain’s foremost experts on the Future of Food, he is a frequent speaker on the evolution of value chains, alternative proteins, and sustainability-driven innovation.
As a senior member of Bain’s Consumer Practice, Bahige brings deep strategic insight and a long-standing commitment to philanthropy, including leadership roles in several non-profit organizations and as chair of an art foundation.
Emma Southard
Emma started her career in UK Government where she worked for 25 years on a variety of high-level policies before moving into the Centre supporting Senior Officials, Cabinet Ministers and two Cabinet Secretaries. Emma joined Bain in May 2020 as an Executive Assistant and now supports 3 Partners. Emma is passionate about Social Impact and had the opportunity to work on a social impact project in 2023 called Time to read. It was during this work that Emma was inspired to start the Uniting Uniforms charity when she saw how a little boy she was reading with each week had no access to School Uniform and would wear clothes with holes in.
Harriet Mitchell
Harriet has been an Executive Assistant for over 10 years now and during this time has predominantly supported C-Suite Executives. Harriet joined Bain & Company in 2019 and currently supports 3 Partners. Harriet had the pleasure of working alongside Emma since Uniting Uniforms was in its early creation and has seen the charity grow. In Harriet’s spare time she likes to spend time with her family and of Harriet’s favourite ways to de-stress and relax is by going to Reformer Pilates.
Our Partners
We’ve worked with the following partners and would like to thank them all for helping us provide uniform to those that most need it
