LIFT Youth Employment are set to open a new store on Emerson St, Napier - run by Moana Hamilton-Neville - to give unemployed youth a chance at working in retail. Photo / Paul Taylor
LIFT Youth Employment are set to open a new store on Emerson St, Napier - run by Moana Hamilton-Neville - to give unemployed youth a chance at working in retail. Photo / Paul Taylor
Jobless young people will have a chance to work in retail through a Hawke's Bay social enterprise.
LIFT Youth Employment, which aims to help at-risk and disadvantaged adolescents find jobs, will open a shop organised, managed and stocked entirely by unemployed youth and their work.
The facility, LIFT Business – Creating Jobs, Creating Futures, will have three areas – a hub for rangatahi to produce goods and develop technical skills, a training room to help with business development programmes and the retail store itself.
LIFT founder Jody Hamilton said the new initiative is to help young people who want to work in retail or have entrepreneurial goals.
"The store in Napier CBD will allow young people to gain experience in a retail operation, which they can't always get elsewhere, and give them an outlet to sell products they're developing," she said.
"We work with rangatahi to develop their business skills, knowledge and confidence through a proven business development approach.
"We've hired five unemployed young people to work as staff, who all have business ideas which we will work on with them."
Locally designed woven flax goods, t-shirts, tea towels and more will make up the stores core products. Photo / Paul Taylor
Woven flax goods made by Arihi Hutana, as well as T-shirts and tea towels, designed by local designer Nash Karaitiana, who also designed the LIFT logo, will make up the store's core products.
Upcycled jewellery and vases will also feature, while poi and rakau, made using second-hand fabric, and wood carvings are also in the works.
"We're not sure what else our young people will design and produce, but it'll be amazing," Hamilton said.
The store is due to open on August 3.
Shop coordinator Moana Hamilton-Neville, who will oversee the new initiative, says she is eager at the prospect of helping others. Photo / Paul Taylor
Shop coordinator Moana Hamilton-Neville will oversee the day to day proceedings of the new initiative.
Hamilton-Neville, 23, who previously trained as a facilitator on LIFT's life skills course 'Bounce', said she is eager at the prospect of helping others like herself.
"I feel really lucky and excited to be able to work alongside creative and talented rangatahi in this region, as they achieve their dreams," she said.
LIFT Youth Employment has engaged with close to 500 young people across Hawke's Bay since it was founded in 2017.
The space will also feature activities available throughout the week, including waiata on Wednesdays, open performances on Thursdays and a fitness and wellbeing session on Fridays.
The store will be open to the public from 10am to 3pm, Monday to Saturday.
