Take-Two gently-used clothing and more
Kimberly Yetman Dawson is the Executive Director for Empower, The Disability Resource Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Empower provides programs and services aimed at developing a broad range of resources to support persons with disabilities, which will help them live independently. In May of 2017, Empower launched a new social enterprise called Take Two Gently-used Clothing and More. Take Two is a second-hand store that holds many items at affordable prices. It provides clothing, small house-hold items, books, dvds and more at very low costs. This social enterprise was built to help raise funds that stay locally to support Empower, and to also provide persons with disabilities a place of employment, which will help them transition into other jobs in the future. Persons with disabilities typically struggle to obtain employment and to find understanding and compassion from employers; however, Empower welcomes all people and offers incredible opportunities to persons with disabilities who face barriers to employment.
“You need supportive employment and a supportive employer to be able to understand what kind of issues people are bringing in and what kind of supports they need in their employment.”- Kimberly Yetman Dawson
Dawson says that she was always interested in the non-profit field. She stated that she was an at-risk youth who left high school but ended up doing a co-op placement, which helped her finally get through school, where she then went on to University. Her attraction to non-profit-social enterprise came from her interest in helping others and social enterprise can do just that – impact people’s lives and the world.
“We wanted to get into the business of not only starting a social enterprise to help support Empower but also help give meaningful employment to people with disabilities”- Kimberly Yetman Dawson
Take Two is opened 11am to 5pm from Tuesday to Sunday.
Interview
Q: What products/services does your social enterprise provide?
A: Take Two is a second hand store. We provide clothing (men’s, women’s, children’s), shoes, DVDS, books and small houseware items.
Q: Given the Empower mandate, can you share a little about how Take Two came to be?
A: We’ve always wanted to provide employment for people that have disabilities. At Empower, majority of the staff have disabilities, majority of our board members have disabilities, and we really saw that there was a need for people that have disabilities to be given a chance. They want to work just like you and I, so we wanted to get into the business of not only starting a social enterprise to help support Empower but also help give meaningful employment to people with disabilities.
Q: What social, cultural or environmental mission does your social enterprise address? How?
A: We provide gainful employment to people with disabilities. We are also taking care of the environment by recycling all the things that we sell. We’ve also found that the area we’re in is not a very wealthy area, so we’re also providing clothing and household items at low prices to people in that area and that’s something that we didn’t see that’s a benefit to the community as well. We’re also giving people the opportunity to volunteer so they can work alongside people that have disabilities. Sometimes people are afraid to work or have friends that have disabilities because they just don’t understand so it’s giving people exposure as well.
Q: What does ‘success’ look like for your social enterprise?
A: We’re relatively new, we don’t have a year in yet so I guess success for us is having people with disabilities employed, as well as giving people volunteer opportunities. If we can give them experience and have them move on elsewhere that’s great and of course we want to make money to support Empower services as well.
Q: Why is supportive employment through social enterprise important to people with disabilities at Empower?
A: Not everyone needs supportive employment but for those that do need it, it is extremely important because we are an understanding employer. We understand physical disabilities, we understand mental health, we understand hearing and sight problems, so you need supportive employment and a supportive employer to be able to understand what kind of issues people are bringing in and what kind of supports they need in their place of employment. We’re also familiar with disabilities so people can talk openly about their disability and we can support them as an employer.
Q: What’s been the most rewarding thing about running this social enterprise?
A: I would have to say the people that work there. They’re so grateful to have a job, they’re so grateful to have the supports and the understanding about their disability and they’re grateful for the opportunity because no one has given them a chance or few businesses have given them a chance, so I would have to say that is the most rewarding part of the social enterprise.
Q: How can people get involved or help Empower move forward with this social enterprise?
A: They can definitely donate – money, clothing, household items, shoes, CDS, books. The only thing we don’t accept is furniture and electronics. They can also volunteer, and we provide training for them. Also telling their friends. I think when people have experienced shopping at Take Two – it’s a small boutique style, very friendly, very clean, we have a really nice accessible dressing room, an automatic door on the front— people have a really good experience so most of the publicity that we get is in word of mouth. So we would really appreciate if they can tell their friends and their family about the store as well.
Q: What kind of support have you received through your connection with the Centre for Social Enterprise at Memorial?
A: We were provided students who did some research for us which was really helpful on the viability of the business, and our target market. Three students did some research and provided a report to us which was great. And then we also hired a student through the centre last year to do marketing for us and that was excellent. He was really good, passionate, innovative, could work on his own and fit in really well with our team. It was great experience for him too, he learned a lot.