You know you should be cleaning out that basement or garage, but why start when you can’t figure out what to do with the junk that might prove useful to someone else? In Edmonton, there is a non-profit social enterprise, Redemptive Developments, that will solve your clean-up dilemma, while helping to end poverty at the same time.
The company was launched when three social workers at the Jasper Place Wellness Centre, a front line social agency, understood that their formerly homeless clients needed more than just a roof over their heads. They needed meaningful, daily work to help maintain physical and mental health, as well as a way to alleviate isolation. With many combined years of experience in the for-profit sector behind them, the three created Redemptive Developments.
The service started simply with a single truck and two staff picking up donated items, but has steadily grown to offer everything from junk removal during home and commercial renovations to salvaging items that might find a new home elsewhere, specifically mattresses. And even if the mattresses can’t be re-homed, the company’s latest venture, with SEF’s help, is a fast-growing mattress recycling enterprise contracted not only by the City of Edmonton but surrounding municipalities and commercial mattress companies as well. With the additional funding, Redemptive Developments was able to purchase additional trucks, bins and recycling equipment to further their reach, and their positive impact on the community.
After thirteen years in the Executive Director chair at SEF, it is time for me to move on.
Every day SEF works with entrepreneurs—non-profits, for-profits, cooperatives – determined to find a better way to do things, to create a sustainable economy leading to a more inclusive community that works for everybody.
