This coming Tuesday, July 7th a new store will be opening up in the Old City of Acco in northern Israel. A store that invites its customers to “Shop For Meaning.”
Stocked with products carrying both social and environmental messages, the Shop for Meaning will also function as a center for professional apprenticeship for young adults with sensory and/or motor special needs. The participants in the apprenticeship will learn about sales and trade through their hands-on experience. At the end of their apprenticeship, participants will get help finding employment in the job market.
The store is a joint project of Kivunim (an organization that supports Israeli youth with special needs) and the Institute for National Insurance.
The store divides its products into several categories:
Products for a better world: Fair trade products that meet environmentally friendly standards.
Products for a more humane world: Unique products made by people with special needs, thus bearing a social message and the need to integrate such populations into work and social spheres.
Products for a more caring world: Restored products that highlight the importance of recycling and reuse. Some of these products have been restored by people with special needs.
Products for a fairer world: Products that are donated or sold to the shop at discount prices, thus enabling the store to use the profits from resale towards assisting people with special needs.
The Shop for Meaning is located in the center of the old city of Acco, in a historical building near the market, Khan Ashwarda, and the Accotel.
For more information about the Shop For Meaning, contact Caroline Mercer (Shop Manager) at [email protected].
Read more about other projects with a joint social and environmental conscience::
Shtaim: A Second-Hand Store with a Twofold Conscience
Kishorit Becomes Organic Utopia For the Mentally Disabled
Guy Lougashi’s Dumpster Diving Designs Inspired by Buttons, Baskets and Brakes
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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