Impact
Social Impact Plan
Jola House Shop is a non-profit social enterprise entity based in New Jersey and Liberia. As a bicoastal institution that launched in 2012, Jola House Shop has a mission to reduce economic inequality for women in Liberia by developing income-generating opportunities through skills training, production, marketing, and exporting handmade products. To implement this mission, Jola House Shop has a three pillar social impact strategy:
Educate
Empower
Transform.
The Impact Of Jola House
In Liberia, the average wage is $1.25 USD per day and a bag of rice costs $40 USD. This means that for the average person in Liberia, it will take them a month and a half to earn enough money to buy a bag of rice to feed their family. Jola House is providing an economic opportunity to women where they can earn enough money for three bags of rice per month.
Currently, Jola House Shop communicates their impact with regard to women’s economic liberation. This showcases how a product purchase can translate to the support of women’s economic equity in Liberia, however we believe there is an additional missed opportunity that is not communicated. Furthermore, we believe that the impact can be communicated in stronger ways to better resonate with ethical shoppers in America.
Through our workshops and reviewing the Jola House Shop impact, we have identified two key impact areas: (1) Using scraps that would otherwise fill landfills for products and (2) Giving skills-based education to women, who with Jola House, earn on average $150 per month. The first element ties into a growing global and American movement called the circular economy.