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Community Spotlight: Mentoring Positives

by Jeffrey Hersheway |

Kate and Laurel is a brand that is homegrown in Madison, Wisconsin. We take pride in our Midwest community and our roots. After a trying 2020, we wanted to spend this year effecting real change by partnering with the Madison-based organization Mentoring Positives. This nonprofit organization dedicates itself to building strong, trusting relationships, positive attitudes, and life skills in youth through mentoring and social entrepreneurship.

How It Began

We reached out to Mentoring Positives in 2020, beginning our partnership by helping out with their Off The Block Pizza Initiative. Through their pizza initiative, they grow and curate their own ingredients to make truly homemade pizza. We volunteered our Waunakee headquarters to serve as the base where Wisconsin citizens could purchase and pick up their pizza.

As our partnership evolved, we realized that our organizations could leave an even bigger impact on the youth in the program. We created a career exploration program that allows participants to explore different parts of our business.

 

Making Art

Mentoring Positives and Kate and Laurel created an eight-week program focused on developing, producing, and selling domestic art. Typically, we work directly with independent artists, licensing their work and applying it to different formats like canvas, glass, and cork. Instead, the participants created their art by exploring different techniques and mediums, taking inspiration from life experiences, design styles, and their work in Mentoring Positives.

 

Marketing Their Art

 

After creating their masterpieces, Kate and Laurel took participants through immersive classes in engineering, manufacturing, photo staging, and online marketing. Our organizations wanted to give the participants more than just an art class; we wanted to show them how to fully explore selling their art. This gave each group member a realistic look at what goes into bringing independent art to market.

 

Selling Their Art

At the end of the 8-week program, we surprised the Mentoring Positives kids by publishing their work on our website, kateandlaurel.com, and it’s launching on Amazon and other retailers soon! In addition, we published each art piece and listed the participants as independent artists.

We had an incredible time working with the youth of Mentoring Positives and hope they continue to explore their passions and sharpen their skills for future professional development. A portion of our proceeds of every sale goes back to Mentoring Positives to allow them to continue their mission!

Because we appreciate your support for Mentoring Positives, use the promo code 20ART at checkout for 20% off your art purchase.

Click here for the full Kate and Laurel x Mentoring Positives Collection.

Click here to learn more about Mentoring Positives.

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