Hand Crafted Products by Individuals with Special Needs
Quality Products - By Extraordinary Individuals
The Crafters For Life concept was created by Joanne Curry, a speech language pathologist in the Council Rock School District in Bucks County PA. Joanne wanted to work on a functional project where she could encourage communication in natural settings for her students. After being denied a grant for the program, Joanne used her own money to purchase the supplies. The lead teacher in the Autistic Support class, Cemantha Giulian, was enlisted to have her class in the project and the results were better than expected. By selling to the school, communication and vocational skills were utilized, and the class sold a lot of products! These teachers did not want to see this program stop when the students turned 21, so they worked with parents of two of their students to figure out a way to have it continue. Together, they formulated a plan. With the help of the school district, the transition path became clear. The goal of Crafters For Life is to teach students the skills to make the quality products sold under the Crafters For Life brand. Upon graduation at age 21, the students would then transition into an existing adult day program and continue to make the same products under the same Crafters For Life brand. Crafters For Life hopes to generate the sales that would employee a lot of individuals with special needs because nothing is better than the look of satisfaction from receiving a paycheck!
Create a model that can be easily scaled to provide training and paying jobs to lots and lots and lots of individuals with special needs.
Current products include all natural sugar scrubs (coconut, lemon or lavender), drink coasters, 16oz plastic tumblers, key chains and relaxing lavender eye pillows.
Visit http://mkt.com/craftersforlife to see all products as well as make purchases!
