A lot of us get new smartphones when we upgrade and may be wondering what to do with the old ones. You can donate them to the Phone It Forward program.

Phone It Forward is an ongoing national program with the Canadian National Institute For the Blind (CNIB).

The program was launched in September of 2018.

Tracy Garbutt is the Program Lead Foundation Relations for CNIB here in Winnipeg. 

He says, "We're trying to put phones in the hands of blind and partially sighted Manitobans that may not be able to afford a smartphone. And it's all the apps that we can put on it that can help them stay independent."

The apps Garbutt is talking about are to help them read their mail, barcodes, even apps to help with clothing colour.

Recommendations before donating your old smartphone are deleting your old passcode, restore it to factory settings, and taking your SIM card out.

The phone then gets sent away, and if it's useable, it gets refurbished.

Once it's completely wiped clean with all data taken off, the phone goes into a bank of inventory and then the phones can be issued out.to Manitobans.

The Phone It Forward website is informative to give you the guidelines of all the eligible phones.

Garbutt said, "Right now, I know all our public libraries, I think there's 20 or 21 partnered with us, and they have pre-addressed envelopes in the library you pick up." 

He said some Birchwood Motor locations have boxes and envelopes too as well as the Lions Clubs.

Garbutt said you can print off the donation form, fill it out, wrap it around the phone and put it into the envelope and then it gets mailed for free.

Garbutt added that you get a tax receipt as well.

You can also drop off used smartphones at the CNIB in Winnipeg at 1080 Portage Avenue.

"We would take care of it from there," Garbutt said.

In closing, Garbutt said, "The average person probably has a phone kicking around that was just sitting there. Why not donate it, get a tax receipt, as long as it's eligible. And on the website, it also talks about all the eligible phones as well."