Kristin Keen had a remarkable vision to help victimized women affected by the sex trade by starting the business: “Rethreaded”. By partnering with social services and mental health providers, Rethreaded not only employees women, but gives them therapeutic jobs that help rehabilitate them.
It all starts with donated t-shirts that go to the Rethreaded warehouse. Beautiful products are then created from the t-shirts by employees; women suffering addiction, coming from a life of prostitution, or victimized from human trafficking. Kristin Keen says, ” Many of these women leave prison with felony records which create significant challenges to employment. Rethreaded is a safe place where women are paid a living wage to become artisan seamstresses and “upcycle” donated t-shirts into beautiful creations for sale,” says Kristin Keen.
The Rethreaded warehouse is located in Jacksonville Florida, yet it has managed to employ over 2,000 women world wide, and keep them out of the sex trade.
Rethreaded is a faith based organization with a mission that is dedicated to six key values: love, acceptance, healing, relationship, community, and excellence.
One aspect that I found really intriguing is the “healing” aspect of Rethreaded. They take their slogan “sowing a new story”, and really base the entire company around it for the women employed. It is no happy accident that the women get to be creative at work, on the Rethreaded websight it says that, “as an organization, we will facilitate healing through our work environment, relationships, and community”. The video under the About Us tab also shares that the work serves as a creative outlet that helps calm the employees. Other than being a creative outlet, during their four month training program, the employees learn important life skills, to help them become self-reliant.
At Rethreaded, the employees get to get paid, while being rehabilitated in a faith based caring environment.