Earlier this week, I called Alexis Cook, Vanderbilt class of 2018, to have a conversation about the social enterprise she co-founded, Unlocked. This Nashville-based jewelry business provides employment to homeless women, while also supporting them with a living wage, mental healthcare, financial empowerment, and housing. Alexis and I spoke about the vision behind Unlocked, the centrality of their transitional employment and housing program, the success of their Makers, and the challenges associated with creating a social enterprise from scratch. In this article, I mention the four main takeaways from our interview, but if you would like to hear more of what Alexis had to say about Unlocked, please check out the podcast episode on Apple or Spotify podcasts!
Unlocked Starts with a Story of Chance Encounters
As a student at Vanderbilt, Alexis was diagnosed with Lyme disease. During her medical leave of absence, she felt called to continue her work and advocacy with homeless Nashvillians, and developed close friendships with many of the people she encountered. Her experiences and conversations led her to feel that, “There should be a company that provides wages while addressing barriers that people facing homelessness face.” A chance encounter on campus with fellow student Corbin Hooker while locked out of her car enabled the two students to create a rough business plan for the company that would eventually become Unlocked.
After the two won the Vanderbilt Innovation and Entrepreneurship Society pitch contest, they began to further flesh out the identity of their company. Later, as one of Alexis’ close friends who experienced homelessness reached the end of a struggle with cancer, he offered her a duffel bag of money from his storage unit, leading to “an interesting turn of events, in which a man who didn’t even own a mattress became the primary investor in a company to employ other people experiencing homelessness.” Alexis took this experience as a sign and after graduation, she and Corbin worked full-time to make Unlocked a reality.
Social Enterprises Like Unlocked Fill Unique Social Justice Needs
Great, but what exactly is a social enterprise? Social enterprises refer to businesses that seek to fulfill a social justice need through a market-based strategy. In the case of Unlocked, their social justice mission is to “unlock” living wages for homeless women in Nashville through meaningful employment and transitional housing, while their business model raises the funds to fulfill this mission through the sale of ethically and sustainably produced jewelry. Working for a living wage and contributing rent to a private apartment both help Makers for Unlocked feel empowered and delivers upon the social justice mission of the business. In addition to these opportunities, Unlocked also enables Makers to gain financial literacy through weekly financial and career counseling, and further enables Makers to receive mental healthcare through regular emotional counseling from a licensed therapist. Using a market-based model provides a unique opportunity for social enterprises to finance themselves, rather than being entirely reliant upon donor funding.
It Takes A Village to Run a Nonprofit
Although some national and international nonprofits can successfully operate on their own, for small nonprofits, community partners are an essential aspect of the services that they can provide. Unlocked offers a dynamic transitional program for its Makers, called Pathways, that begins with providing new Makers access to private apartments, but also provides a range of other services mentioned above. To provide each of these services and fully support Makers, Alexis is quick to attribute the success of the Pathways program to the cultivation of a network of community partners that work with Unlocked.
The Community Care Fellowship, a day shelter for Nashville’s unhoused and socially displaced community, was one of the first partners with Unlocked. Transitional housing for Makers and master leases are offered through a partnership between CCF and Urban Housing Solutions, while rent is paid by a combination of the Makers themselves and subsidization from CCF and Unlocked. Career and professional counseling are offered by private professionals and counselors, or through Mental Health Cooperative, which also refers clients to the Makers program. This list is not exhaustive, and a variety of other community partners help make Unlocked a successful and vibrant social enterprise, such as Thistle Farms, Room in the Inn, and Renewal House, which work alongside Unlocked to empower Makers.
Making Your Own Jewelry is Not as Simple As it Seems
A particular point of pride for Unlocked is its in-house production process. While many businesses outsource parts of their supply chains to lower costs and reduce the technological demands of the production process, Unlocked addresses every step of the design and production process on its own. From the initial step of designing molds which will be poured with recycled silver and gold, to the final step of shipping jewelry to customers and retailers, the products sold by Unlocked are completely created in-house. Corbin, fellow co-founder of Unlocked, digitally models jewelry designs which are then printed using a 3-D printer. Makers can then fill the molds of these designs with molten recycled sterling silver using the lost wax method, which Alexis describes as “much more industrial than the original jewelry-making process was.”
This industrial process is typically a more advanced form of jewelry-making, which makes Unlocked unique among small businesses. Two additional advantages of this technique are the ethical and sustainable natures of their production process. Makers are paid living wages to produce jewelry from recycled materials, using processes that minimize environmental impact and employment practices that treat Makers ethically and equitably. The supply chain begins and ends with Unlocked, so there are no murky questions about where a product comes from or its possible negative consequences for the environment or its producers.
Learning More about Unlocked
If you enjoyed reading this article, I highly recommend checking out the Unlocked website to learn more from the founders and Makers about their vision and goals. I also recommend checking out the full podcast with Alexis, available on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Lastly, if you want to support the work of Unlocked or its community partners, consider donating to these nonprofits that are disproportionately impacted by the continuing ramifications of the Middle TN tornadoes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Included below are links to many of the nonprofits that partner with Unlocked!
- Unlocked
- Community Care Fellowship
- Urban Housing Solutions
- Mental Healthcare Cooperative
- Thistle Farms
- Room in the Inn
- Renewal House
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Excellent reporting and so interesting! Thanks Grace and thanks all. Mark