

image by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Globe

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

Forrest Gump can spout all he would like about existence remaining “like a box of candies,” but a new Lawrence nonprofit thinks a box of unassembled home furnishings could be additional apt.
In a little warehouse in North Lawrence, a group of about 10 “transitional youth” — young children usually 16 to 24 a long time previous who have been or are in the foster treatment system or the juvenile justice program — await a truck to pull up to the overhead door.
In it is overstocked, damaged or returned furniture goods — all in parts. Placing them all back jointly is both a enterprise enterprise and a existence lesson for people who are part of the new nonprofit All set for Superior Co.
“Most of the time, it comes with an allen wrench and directions,” mentioned Addison Shockley, founder and CEO of Ready for Superior Co.
Subsequent recommendations is a single existence lesson. Frequently, the furniture is weakened a little bit, demanding the youthful people today to master some standard carpentry or mechanical competencies to resolve the merchandise. The have to have to find out new competencies is yet another existence lesson.
And then, there’s economics. The nonprofit sells the products equally via an on the internet retail store and an in-person retail site that it operates at the warehouse, 1410 N. Third St. That requires pricing the merchandise, writing a description for its on-line listing, getting pictures, and working with engineering to get the merchandise posted and promoted on the web.
As for the in-person retail procedure, there’s a great deal to master about income-managing and customer provider.
All of that from opening up a box of unassembled household furniture.
“There’s a great deal of chance to get a range of capabilities,” Shockley explained.
picture by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Entire world
Addison Shockley, founder of Completely ready for Good Co., walks previous bins of furnishings that await assembly by the youth the nonprofit serves.
The young people today also get hard cash. The nonprofit pays them $8 an hour for their function, Shockley stated. When the dollars is important, Shockley claimed the skills are extra vital. But there probable is one more ingredient to the operation that’s even additional essential than the techniques the youth learn. It is the interactions they type.
Shockley worked for five years furnishing case coordination at O’Connell Youth Ranch, a Lawrence-dependent nonprofit that performs with youth in the foster care program. It was a challenging career, evidenced by the superior turnover costs amongst personnel users there and in other social services agencies.
These turnover generates all forms of operational challenges for an organization like that, but it also results in a actual challenge in the lives of the youth.
“A serious hurdle for them is not getting a constant romance in their life,” Shockley stated.
Shockley began imagining that an corporation like All set for Good Co. could deliver that variety of marriage. The concept is that the organization wouldn’t try out to do every little thing that a place like O’Connell need to do. The ranch is accountable for providing housing, food, protection, schooling and so many other things for the youth, which can make the undertaking too much to handle for absolutely everyone associated, Shockley explained.
“Part of the emphasis in building Completely ready for Excellent Co. was let’s just just take a chunk out of the pie and try out to educate them task capabilities and psychological techniques,” Shockley mentioned.
That is what the corporation has been accomplishing considering that it gained its initially truckload of furniture in early April. Now the nonprofit is spreading the word about how the general public can turn out to be associated, which is largely by getting consumers.
Presently soon after just a single truckload, the retailer has a superior amount of products, ranging from outdoor home furnishings to sofas to chairs to flooring lamps and pretty a bit a lot more. Offered that the items is overstock or returned merchandise, the store’s company design is to provide the objects at a big price reduction in contrast to the recommended retail selling price.
“The notion is that the costs will be definitely reasonably priced and the stuff will be seriously pleasant,” Shockley reported.
picture by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Globe
Prepared for Superior Co. in North Lawrence sells a variety of furnishings, including both indoor and outside home furnishings.
The proceeds go to fork out the youth and to fund the other functions of the nonprofit, which will consist of some course operate and seminars.
“One of the bread-and-butter sections of our plan will be to give them classes on how to produce a résumé and how to job interview for a work,” Shockley claimed.
The in-human being retail shop is open up from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday by Saturday at 1410 N. 3rd St. If you are acquiring a hard time picturing the place, it is north of the Kansas Turnpike. You have probably recognized a indicator for Paul Davis Restoration. The retail store is in that elaborate of outlets and warehouses.
The online retail outlet operates at shopreadyforgood.com.
While Shockley explained he’s absolutely in the household furniture business for the good it can do for the youth, he also reported he thinks the shop will fulfill an essential have to have for reasonably priced furnishings in Lawrence. He understands that is a business that can be thriving mainly because he viewed his mom and dad, and now his brother, run a home furniture keep in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
It was whilst spending time in that household furniture retailer — which sells some overstock things but does not have the youth part to it — that the strategy for a new home furniture-based nonprofit struck Shockley.
So much, the idea has not unhappy him. The youth are learning, and the packing containers hold coming. The store’s next semi-load arrived not long ago, and the packing containers await opening in a storage place. Shockley said most of the shipments contain some non-home furnishings things that the keep puts in a exclusive miscellaneous corner. The very first cargo, for occasion, involved a children’s boxing bag established.
“It keeps it fascinating since each and every time anyone comes in, they can assume to find a ton of household furniture and some entertaining, random things,” he reported.
Or, as some goofball philosopher at the time claimed, “you never know what you’re likely to get.”
picture by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-Globe
Completely ready for Good Co. is situated in smaller warehouse area in North Lawrence at 1410 North 3rd Street.