What We Do
Joy Thrift
A community thrift store where everybody knows your name. We have the best customers, some of whom come in daily to look or talk. We wanted a central, walkable store to offer practical, everyday, and often interesting items to people in Hamtramck and Detroit at an affordable price. We can do that thanks to the in-kind donations people drop off and our fantastic volunteers. We are expanding our online sales, and for anyone living in Hamtramck or Detroit, we offer a 30% discount. Joy Thrift currently accounts for roughly half of our organization's revenue. Thank you for your support. For all the info about store hours, in-kind donations, and more, please visit www.JoyThrift.org
Youth Marketing Academy
We had no money to invest in professional content creation, but student volunteers started sending us creative pieces for free. We hired two of these students to work at our store and help create a curriculum for the Youth Marketing Academy, a paid internship we are currently fundraising for that can help local high school students grow in marketing skills, receive mentorship from professional volunteers, and work on real-world projects. Students are currently learning how to use AI software to list items for sale online, Canva to edit photos and videos, and so much more. We would love to invest in many of these students who will go on to successful careers in related fields. We know several great candidates, but we need more funding to hire them.
Urban Farming Residency
Urban farming in Detroit makes so much sense in so many ways. There is lots of underutilized land that could be used to grow healthy food for low-income residents. Urban farms in Detroit are also teaching tools, beautification projects, connecting spaces for neighbors, places to find peace, and so much more. We bought a house with side lots a few years ago, which we use for urban farmers to engage community residents in growing food. They do that at an urban garden on the side of our farm guest house and at Sylhet Farm, a place One New Humanity has personally invested time and resources in helping build. The house is located in the Banglatown neighborhood of Detroit on the border of Hamtramck. Many who live there are first-generation immigrants from Bangladesh who grew up in agricultural communities, but came to Detroit seeking better opportunities.
Cares Fund
We meet many people through our work, and we often hear about urgent situations where our store is uniquely positioned to help. We have let families get clothes for their kids who are out of work, provided practical items to newly arrived immigrant or refugee families, given jackets or winter clothes/ shoes to someone who couldn’t afford them, and more. In many of these situations, we just provided the individual or family store credit, and they shopped like everyone else for what they needed. We get the items donated for free, but there is a real cost to us for offering this to the community. We started this fund in 2025 to cover our costs and plan to expand it and help more people.
Repurpose Club
We have a company that picks up items that are hard to sell at our store for several reasons, but they pay only pennies per lb. At least we don't have to throw it away. What brings us joy is letting the many creative people living in Detroit and Hamtramck have access to these items to repurpose. We have donated items to other local non-profits that teach fashion design or use them in different projects. All we ask is that they send us a few photos. We keep some nicer items that need repair, missing buttons, small tears, etc., and are looking for volunteers to take the time to fix them for resale.
Partners
Our partners are vital to our work and help make our goals become a reality!
Become a Partner
If you are interested in partnering with us, please fill out the form below, and we will be in touch.