Hello All,
I am going to write this update about Good Threads and its connection with the Joan Rose Foundation.
For those of you who don’t know, Good Threads is a needlepoint belt company that I started with my brother Timmy in 2012. Since opening the foundation I have been looking for some way to employ some of the children’s mothers. Many of these women are the sole bread winner in the household, and job opportunities for women in Esperanza are extremely limited. Employing them would not only bring stability to their household but would also tie them even tighter to the JRF. It helps ensure that they don’t move and gives us leverage when it comes to ensuring that their children attend school and the JRF daily.
Needlepointing is a type of embroidery. Making a belt sized piece of needlepoint will take many women 50 or so hours. Our employees have a lot of practice and extremely nimble fingers due to all the hair braiding they have done. They can make a belt in roughly 30 hours. We currently employ 20 women, 15 of whom have kids at the JRF.
Good Threads, like many companies, has a give back. For every belt sold we feed a child three meals a day for an entire month. In 2013 we gave about $3,300 USD to the JRF. What I believe separates Good Threads from other companies is how closely we are linked to the non-profit we give to. Good Threads’ top employee is also the cook for the Joan Rose Foundation, about 3/4 of GT employees have children at the Joan Rose Foundation, and the Joan Rose Foundation development center is our operational headquarters.
Simply put, without the Joan Rose Foundation, Good Threads would not exist. Supporting the JRF and our children’s mothers was the primary impetus to start the company, and we are staffed entirely by women in the neighborhood in which the JRF operates. Our connection to our employees and their children cannot be overstated. When our top employee got married she asked me to walk her down the aisle, as she does not know her father. About a quarter of our employees call me the father of their children. I have been teaching, providing for and supporting these kids every day for almost 4 years, and at this point they are truly my family.
For me, Good Threads and the Joan Rose Foundation are two sides of the same coin. Since founding the JRF my goal has been to help people help themselves. To help them lift themselves out of abject poverty. For children I believe education is the best way to do this. For grown women I believe a good job and steady source of income is the best way. I believe to my core that if someone is willing to work hard and behave responsibly they deserve the chance to live with dignity. Being evicted from your house is not dignified, watching your children cry from hunger is not dignified, having to prostitute yourself to keep your family out of the street is not dignified. Unfortunately these are the hardships that many Haitian and Dominican women in Esperanza are forced to deal with on a daily basis. They are not in their current situation due to their work ethic or character, they are in this situation because they were born into it. Everyday the Joan Rose Foundation strives to give kids born into this situation a way out and everyday Good Threads strives to give women living in this situation a way out. Two different approaches to help fix the same problem. Two sides, same coin.
You can learn more at the Good Threads website: www.goodthreadsllc.com
As always, thank you for your support.
