

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Planet

Addison Shockley, founder and CEO of Prepared for Very good Co., talks about the store’s products and the nonprofit’s mission on Friday, April 22, 2022.

Forrest Gump can spout all he desires about lifetime remaining “like a box of chocolates,” but a new Lawrence nonprofit thinks a box of unassembled furnishings may possibly be much more apt.
In a tiny warehouse in North Lawrence, a team of about 10 “transitional youth” — youngsters typically 16 to 24 a long time old who have been or are in the foster treatment process or the juvenile justice program — await a truck to pull up to the overhead doorway.
In it is overstocked, destroyed or returned furnishings objects — all in parts. Putting them all again collectively is both of those a organization venture and a everyday living lesson for those who are section of the new nonprofit Prepared for Fantastic Co.
“Most of the time, it arrives with an allen wrench and guidance,” stated Addison Shockley, founder and CEO of Ready for Very good Co.
Pursuing guidelines is a single existence lesson. Often, the furnishings is broken a bit, requiring the youthful people to find out some fundamental carpentry or mechanical techniques to take care of the merchandise. The need to have to learn new expertise is an additional daily life lesson.
And then, there is economics. The nonprofit sells the merchandise both equally through an on the web shop and an in-human being retail area that it runs at the warehouse, 1410 N. Third St. That consists of pricing the merchandise, crafting a description for its on the net listing, using photographs, and employing know-how to get the merchandise posted and promoted on the world wide web.
As for the in-person retail procedure, there is a good deal to learn about cash-handling and customer assistance.
All of that from opening up a box of unassembled household furniture.
“There’s a ton of opportunity to get a wide range of expertise,” Shockley said.
photograph by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Environment
Addison Shockley, founder of Completely ready for Fantastic Co., walks earlier packing containers of household furniture that await assembly by the youth the nonprofit serves.
The younger folks also get funds. The nonprofit pays them $8 an hour for their get the job done, Shockley claimed. Though the cash is crucial, Shockley said the expertise are far more vital. But there likely is a further factor to the operation that’s even a lot more important than the expertise the youth learn. It is the relationships they kind.
Shockley worked for 5 yrs delivering situation coordination at O’Connell Youth Ranch, a Lawrence-based nonprofit that operates with youth in the foster care procedure. It was a tough job, evidenced by the superior turnover charges amid workers customers there and in other social support organizations.
This sort of turnover makes all kinds of operational issues for an firm like that, but it also creates a serious issue in the lives of the youth.
“A real hurdle for them is not acquiring a constant connection in their life,” Shockley said.
Shockley commenced thinking that an firm like Completely ready for Good Co. could supply that form of connection. The thought is that the organization wouldn’t try to do everything that a put like O’Connell must do. The ranch is responsible for offering housing, food items, stability, training and so quite a few other points for the youth, which can make the job overpowering for everybody included, Shockley stated.
“Part of the emphasis in creating All set for Very good Co. was let us just choose a bite out of the pie and check out to train them position techniques and emotional skills,” Shockley said.
Which is what the group has been carrying out considering that it obtained its first truckload of home furniture in early April. Now the nonprofit is spreading the term about how the general public can come to be involved, which is mainly by becoming consumers.
Presently soon after just just one truckload, the shop has a good quantity of goods, ranging from outdoor furniture to sofas to chairs to flooring lamps and quite a bit a lot more. Presented that the goods is overstock or returned merchandise, the store’s enterprise product is to provide the things at a major lower price when compared to the suggested retail price tag.
“The concept is that the prices will be seriously reasonably priced and the stuff will be seriously good,” Shockley reported.
image by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Planet
Ready for Very good Co. in North Lawrence sells a variety of furniture, which includes both of those indoor and outside home furniture.
The proceeds go to fork out the youth and to fund the other operations of the nonprofit, which will consist of some course operate and seminars.
“One of the bread-and-butter components of our system will be to supply them classes on how to produce a résumé and how to job interview for a work,” Shockley stated.
The in-man or woman retail retail store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday via Saturday at 1410 N. 3rd St. If you are getting a tough time picturing the locale, it is north of the Kansas Turnpike. You have most likely observed a indication for Paul Davis Restoration. The keep is in that elaborate of outlets and warehouses.
The online shop operates at shopreadyforgood.com.
Although Shockley mentioned he’s undoubtedly in the furnishings enterprise for the good it can do for the youth, he also claimed he thinks the retail outlet will satisfy an crucial require for economical home furniture in Lawrence. He is aware of that is a business that can be productive since he viewed his dad and mom, and now his brother, run a household furniture shop in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
It was though paying out time in that home furniture keep — which sells some overstock items but does not have the youth ingredient to it — that the plan for a new furniture-based nonprofit struck Shockley.
So significantly, the strategy has not upset him. The youth are mastering, and the bins keep coming. The store’s second semi-load arrived a short while ago, and the bins await opening in a storage location. Shockley claimed most of the shipments incorporate some non-home furniture merchandise that the store puts in a particular miscellaneous corner. The initially cargo, for instance, bundled a children’s boxing bag set.
“It retains it attention-grabbing simply because every time somebody will come in, they can count on to discover a ton of household furniture and some exciting, random stuff,” he reported.
Or, as some goofball philosopher as soon as explained, “you in no way know what you are heading to get.”
photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Globe
Prepared for Great Co. is positioned in modest warehouse house in North Lawrence at 1410 North 3rd Road.