Designed For Joy provides women in crisis with stability through immediate employment and support, removing the stigma of vulnerability.
Our Values
We aim to have a C.H.A.I.R. available for every woman in crisis who needs a safe and dignified job. Our values are:
Communication - Active listening. Clear & concise direction. Complete transparency. Hospitality - Commitment to personal satisfaction among all served. Advocacy - Passionate voice for the unheard. Creating social awareness and change. Inclusive - Recognize human uniqueness and variability and design within it. Respect - Affirm belonging. Lead with truth, honesty, empathy, and grace.
Vision Statement
We envision a community where every woman has the opportunity to earn a living wage through safe and dignified work.
Our Inspiration
The heart and soul of DFJ comes from inspiration by international friends creating fair trade artisan groups. We've spent years financially and prayerfully supporting international artisans groups. Our first trip to Rwanda introduced us to an artisan group taking 30 women off the streets working in the sex industry and kept them off the streets while producing quality products in a safe and faith based work environment.
Together with volunteers and financial supporters like you, we have created that same work model here in North Carolina by opening our studio in December of 2017.
Living Wage
For us, a living wage means an income that gives women positive choices rather than making desperate decisions when trying to provide food for family and paying rent.
Our Hope
Our hope is for our artisans to find confidence in themselves, learn to trust community, and to grow in their faith while working with Designed For Joy. Our goal is for participants to leave DFJ with marketable skills and a solid job reference to succeed in the job market.
Who We Help
The women who create our brand with us are those living at high risk for sex and labor trafficking and/or food and housing insecurities. We partner with long-running ministries or local NGOs serving women that may be coming out of trafficking, emergency situations, generational poverty, homelessness, rehab, or prison. We believe in a community approach. In this a holistic care approach we take the vocational resource component while our professional partners do what they do best.
Local and Global Products
Drawing from our rich history of international mission work and partnerships with creative co-ops abroad, we feature a few product lines available through DFJ from outside of the US. We are especially excited about the DFJ product lines that are goods developed outside of the US and then created into new products by our artists.
"We love Designed for Joy and what it means for our survivors. You all have been a game changer in the lives each each women you serve." Elizabeth Hunter, Project FIGHT
