The Second Generation Upholstery Project is one of many program initiatives established by Fathers Among Men, Inc. to expand community impact by targeting male youth and adults.  We believe by empowering this demographic, with new skill sets and opportunities, it will create lasting effects in becoming a catalyst to expanding community impact globally, to creating more environmentally friendly businesses and to creating job skills and platforms for entrepreneurial endeavors. 

 

The Second Generation Upholstery Project is a single project with a multi-tiered  system of execution and a number of opportunities for positive outcomes. The two main components of the program are training and business. 

 

The program will  teach participants skills such as reupholstering, repurposing and recycling furniture that may in turn be donated to local charities or nonprofit organizations or sold to generate funding for the program. It is estimated that over 17 billion pounds of furniture is discarded in the United Stated every year. This model will heighten environmental awareness and the necessity to create less waste and is estimated to save 2 tons of waste from the landfills annually. In addition, the program will teach participants business skills such as planning, task to completion, record keeping, sales and other general business principles that can be valuable tools to be used in future personal or business contexts. 

 

The program’s primary desired outcome is to equip and transition groups of males that may otherwise be unemployed, underemployed, or undereducated into individuals with a variety of skills that will allow them to enter the job market or create their own entrepreneurial endeavors. 

The goal of this project is to teach participants the skills to start their own business utilizing this trade and save Tons of furniture from entering our land fields every year. We will measure this program first by the amount of furniture that is saved from the land field. We will measure this program by the number of participants that are able to start their own furniture reupholster/recycling business. . We will measure this program by the number of pieces of furniture that will be donated to non-profits that are helping to place families in new residences. The funding request will help to create a sector that benefits the community in many ways, but is difficult to start without the support of grant funding.

 

The organization goal is teach 10 men this trade and all steps of starting a business. The recycling goal is to 5 Tons of furniture per month. This would mean about 60 tons of furniture recycled per year. The goal for re-purpose is to donate 10 Pieces per month. That would equate to 120 pieces of furniture per year. We would also like to create about 10 works of art from the recycle materials per year.

This project will require funding to get started. By our estimates, we would need a multi-year funding of $50,000 dollars in the first year and $35,000 in year two. The initial year will require more effort to bring awareness and teach the first wave of participants. In the second year, we expect to have more awareness and generate more of the needed funding for the program's art projects and sell of the reupholstered furniture. 

 

Year 1 funding use 

$10,000 vehicles 

$2,500 Grant writer 

$5,000 Marketing to bring awareness to the concept of recycling furniture 

$20,000 Compensation for participants 

$5,000 Sewing machines 

$15,000 ( 1200 per month – towards facility) 

$2,500 Misc 

 

Year 2 funding use

15,000 ( 1200 per month – towards facility) 

2500 Marketing program 

$5,000 vehicles 

10,000 Compensation for participants 

2500 Misc

 

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