JUSTWORK HOMEjustwork home JUSTGARDENjustgarden JUSTPOTTERS justpotters JUSTCATERINGjustcatering JUSTRENOSjustrepairs

JustWork and a Social Enterprise Solution

Physical disabilities, mental illness, homelessness and addictions are among the barriers preventing some from finding appropriate, steady employment. Rather, persons facing such barriers are often marked as unemployable.

For people facing multiple barriers to the traditional workforce, JustWork fosters dignified, gainful work opportunities through the development of social enterprises. Because social enterprises are hybrid organizations focused on both social and economic outcomes, they can offer:

  • Safe places of employment with more flexible work hours and job expectations.
  • Work experience and skill development enabling a transition to more regular job situations.

JustWork emerged from the life and ministry of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church in the Grandview-Woodlands neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia.

A JUST STORY

A new and unlikely community is emerging in the basement of a church. Each week five or six individuals gather in its pottery studio to make ceramic pieces. Most of these individuals share a common place of existing in the margins of the neighbourhood, a position brought on by poverty, mental illness, and/or ethnic background.

Within this common place there is much diversity and when diversity is present distrust is often close by. But these ones are working together to build trust, friendship, and community.