Art of Recycle

At Art of Recycle our goal is to provide HOPE to people within the communities that we serve.

Hospitality

• Teaching people to treat each other with dignity and respect. We have a no-bullying policy in place and we treat people the way we expect people to treat others. Our goal is to create low stress environments where individuals with disadvantages can prosper through safe employment.

Opportunity

• We have a job training program developed for youths that teaches life skills, job skills and critical thinking skills. We encourage volunteerism and offer paid employment to youth, adults and seniors who need a compassionate environment to work within due to their disadvantages. We work directly with schools and other non-profits that assist individuals with disadvantages and we help to provide a safe environment that allows these individuals to learn and grow through community interactions.

Prosperity

• The work that our employees and volunteers perform at Art of Recycle help other non-profits, community and educational centers to thrive and open new programs.
• Our work within our community enables us to help other communities to develop similar revitalization projects in order to create widespread community prosperity.

Empowerment

• Our goal is to empower people through education and free and low-cost resources. The success of our organization and its ability to remain self-sustaining can fuel entire communities with the concept that they can achieve magnificent things when they apply the effort to do so. We aim to provide guidance and structured plans on how to recreate similar successful programs.

AoR reaches out to other community programs to assist in employment and job education for young adults in life skills programs. We advocate for individuals with disabilities who could be receiving better services, or who are in danger of losing services that would be beneficial to them.
We keep injured employees employed through our light duty program and help advocate for their needs. Through communication with non-profits that look for suitable light duty work, we offer opportunities for companies who are seeking light duty work for their injured employees. We have discovered that many light duty workers who are uninformed as to their rights when it comes to worksite injuries. We encourage them to seek out legal advice if their injury occurred more than three months prior.
We go above and beyond when it comes to offering individuals with disabilities projects that help them to reach physical and mental developmental goals. We continue to work with organizations that are searching for volunteer opportunities that provide their clients with a comfortable and welcoming environment that they can achieve in.

We continue to grow AoR’s network of donors that provide our resource center with materials that teachers and other non-profits are in need of. A full list is available for viewing on our website.

Our outreach efforts have created a solid foundation for our organization. Our biggest focus in our first years has been to create a stable form of funding and a respected name within our community, and we have already accomplished both. The support our organization receives from the community has been outstanding.

With our financial support being stable and trackable through our thrifty craft store sales, our art workshop registrations, teacher memberships, and daily visitor count, our next step is helping to create the programs that people in our community have shown need for. The biggest need that we are seeing is advocating for students in job training programs through other institutions and organizations. Many of these organizations are not focusing on long term solutions for young adults under the age of 21, leaving them without support programs after they reach the age of 21. Art of Recycle raises funds to create employment positions and job training for high school students with special needs. We utilize our craft store and art center to train people in math, reading and writing, social skills, life skills and critical thinking skills.

AoR is always seeking further development for our team. Teaching people how to work together to help make their community grow. As Art of Recycle grows, so does our staff. Both volunteer and hired staff make up our work force.

Art of Recycle has established a firm clientele base, both in the Ephrata area and surrounding counties. We have successfully networked with local organizations and local community members who were in need of the services that we provide, many of whom are now regularly utilizing our services.

Art of Recycle is currently residing in an 18000sf wonderland in downtown Ephrata, PA. We have successfully raised the funds to support our growth. AoR has been successful in maintaining our facility and our growth for 16 years. Our organization is self-sustaining, creating the funds to employ a modest part-time staff. On track to eventually employing dozens of disadvantaged residents from Ephrata and surrounding areas.

Art of Recycle has created a successful job training and life skills training program. We work with disadvantaged youth, adults and seniors that are in need of assistance with math, measuring, reading, writing and communication skills.

Art of Recycle, through the wonderful outpouring of in-kind support of our community was, in 2018, able to give away over $150,000 of classroom and art supplies to teachers in need in over a 5 states area. In 2021 we distributed over $500,000 in teaching supplies to thousands of teachers and non-profits within a five state area.