AWARD YEAR
2019
CATEGORY
Body
GOALS
Decent Work & Economic Growth
KEYWORDS
job opportunities, Give Back, handmade
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
Rebecca Smith
WEBSITE
https://betterlifebags.com/
Better Life Bags
Handmade, Custom Bags That Give Back
Better Life Bags is a custom handbag company located in the heart of Detroit, MI. Every bag is hand cut and hand sewn by a woman from our under resourced community. Your purchase gives them the opportunity to excel at a skill and provide for their families. In 2010, she and her family moved to a low income area of Detroit, Michigan and her eyes were opened to what poverty, unemployment, and blight can do to a city and the people living there. When orders experienced a boom in 2012, she turned to her neighborhood for help. She hired a woman originally from Yemen, named Nadia, to start sewing bags alongside her. After a few months of spending time with Nadia and paying her for the work she was doing, Rebecca saw a shift in her attitude and economic status. Her family was finally able to afford bed frames for their four children and a dining room table. Better Life Bags was making lives better in Rebecca's own community.