Our Mission
Designed For Joy is a transitional work experience for women coming from trafficking, homelessness, time in prison, overcoming addiction or other vulnerable situations. We provide living wage work hours while building confidence and refreshing resumes. We are launching equipped women into the marketplace.
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.
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