Regina teacher, students promote free hugs for non-profit
Marketing teacher Jeph Maystruck shares social enterprise with students
A Regina teacher and his Saskatchewan Polytechnic marketing students are giving back to the community.
Teacher Jeph Maystruck has made social enterprise a priority in his curriculum. He and his students have created a T-shirt company called Uplifting T-shirts.
They sell shirts for $30 dollars each, and all the proceeds go towards the local non-profit organization Carmichael Outreach.
The organization is on the frontline of mental illness, poverty, addictions and homelessness in Regina.
"We sold 60 T-shirts in seven days," Maystruck said. "All I said was, 'What if we had longer?'"
The project proved students could successfully run a business, but it also proved they could do something meaningful, he said.
From concept to community
Uplifting T-shirts is in its second year.
They learn practical skills from proposal to design to marketing to customer service. Students experience failures and "break some rules" along the way.
Maystruck said the approach ensures students retain what they learn.
"Forget the theory, throw them under the fire and watch them learn," he said.
"The second you empower somebody, it is the greatest thing in the world."
This year's shirts are bright pink, have a teddy bear on the front and offer free hugs. Last year's said, "Kindness is contagious, pass it on."
Shift to social enterprise
Maystruck said business isn't just about profit anymore.
"When you read business books at the end of the book it says 'but none of this matters unless you give back,' and so for the last five years I've been pulling out my hair — literally — saying business doesn't work unless you give back."
Maystruck had Tyler Gray from Carmichael Outreach speak to his class about social enterprise.
People respond differently to a T-shirt fundraiser than they do to us asking for money,- Tyler Gray, Carmichael Outreach
"You could see the lights turn on," Maystruck said.
According to Maystruck, the students were captivated by the idea that they could make money by giving back to the community.
That's why the kids chose to partner with the non-profit.
Summer season hardest time for non-profits
Gray, interim executive director of Carmichael Outreach, said contributions are always helpful, but they are particularly so in the summer because donations drop dramatically in the warmer months.
"People respond differently to a T-shirt fundraiser than they do to us asking for money," he said.
Gray said it's always helpful when businesses generate revenue for the non-profit, and it doesn't matter if it's a $15,000 donation or one the price of a T-shirt.
"It's a way to get the community connected to the conversation around homelessness, addictions, mental illness, poverty," he said, noting that projects like this help change the narrative around those issues.
Gray has worked with the non-profit for three years and has seen a steady increase in demand for its services.
"Our meal program went from 37,000 meals the first year I was here, and this year we're on pace for a little over 60,000," he said.
The housing program has also grown, not only in number but in the complexity of the issues, he said.
"You really do see those numbers increasing year over year and you really see the challenges that a lot of people face that I think kind of get hidden."