Recently, I have been given the privilege of being selected as a card maker by Second Story Cards. Being homeless, you experience few opportunities to receive services from the community that surrounds you unless you personally hear of them and seek them out. People are blessed with what is around them, and yet they forget that it’s not permanent.
Second Story Cards was created to better the lives of homeless people. It is a boutique social enterprise that elevates the creative talents and voices of people who have experienced homelessness. We believe that one element of our lives—certainly not our housing status—does not define us. We can write a second story.
Our business model is simple: create beautiful greeting cards and help our neighbors most in need. The cardmakers recieve 15 percent of each sale. Additionally, 10 percent is donated to a nonprofit of the artist’s choice in an effort to give back to the organizations that have helped people overcome the challenges they’ve experienced.
“Homelessness is not a reflection of a person’s worth, but rather a reflection of a society’s collective failure to provide basic human needs,” stated Reed Sandridge, the founder of Second Story Cards.
“I am thankful for my health and amazing wife, Ellie, my friends, and the fact that we have housing. I’m thankful, also, that people like my cards,” said Daniel Cline, a cardmaker from Nashville.