Introduction

We Make Good is a new social enterprise that aims address the challenges that ex-offenders and other highly motivated long term unemployed people face in relation to getting a job. We want to get the hardworking unemployed into jobs.

We will do this by producing furniture and homewares by Irish designers. Irish designers find it hard to find appropriate manufacturing centres in Ireland; this project also addresses a real need for them. We also aim to secure manufacturing contracts through state procurement systems. Many of the design pieces we have secured have won national and international awards. .

We are working with five manufacturing sites that have space, equipment and manufacturing expertise, however no products or markets.

Our aim is to create a manufacturing SE infrastructure in Ireland that creates jobs and opportunity, while supporting Irish design.

What will we achieve and why is it different to what’s currently on offer?

Our innovative project will result in paid work and relevant work place training for ex-offenders and other at-risk groups. This is unlike the current options available to them, such as traditional CE schemes, which deliver FETAC training, but which do not provide a clear pathway to paid and sustainable employment or provide the workplace skills required by employers. The model will also support individuals to become contractors, thereby establishing their own business.

Our project addresses the following problems:

  1. Many training environments within Ireland do not result in Ireland’s most vulnerable populations moving onto employment
  2. To address issue 1. a number of manufacturing SEs are getting started in Ireland, however they are struggling to identify products and/or markets for products. There are no infrastructural supports to assist SEs to navigate these challenges.
  3. Irish designers who want to produce at the mass rather than craft market, face significant challenges in finding manufacturing expertise that can produce at the quality and price required for ad hoc orders. As a result, very few Irish designers are able to design for the national or global market place.

What is We Make Good?

How does it work?

We Make Good connects emerging SEs with great Irish designed products, we support the manufacture and quality control, and market these, initially through online platforms, markets, and direct marketing.

Why is it innovative?

Supported manufacturing centres are common in other countries; We Make Good is innovative in that it takes a collaborative approach – creating a national infrastructure and connecting this to an allied industry, that of Irish design.

What does success look like?

For our project, we define success as:

  1. Job Creation – We estimate 20 jobs by year three, as well as the development of 10 new social enterprises / co-op jobs.
  2. Mental health – Evidence shows that paid employment has a significant impact on mental health and wellbeing.
  3. Social inclusion – This project, by creating employment, brings at-risk groups closer to their communities, by narrowing the gap that marginalises them, and supporting then to contribute to their families and their communities through employment.
  4. Profile – Irish designers have more products in circulation, meaning increase in profile and income.

 

Designers

We want to get more Irish designed products into circulation and help emerging Irish Designers access both national and international markets. We want to provide them with a flexible, sustainable and ethical manufacturing partner, with high quality and fair terms at its core. Most importantly, we want to make products for Irish designers – products that due to lack of funding or support might otherwise never make it to market.

What kind of products do we want to manufacture?

What we are currently looking for are products made of wood or metal that are at an advanced stage of development – ie prototyped, or close to prototype stage.

How do we work?

We Make Good takes a collaborative approach. We will always be open, clear and transparent and all aspects of our work.

How to get in touch?

You can drop us an email – wemakegood@qualitymatters.ie – We will never share or use any material you give us without your approval and we are happy to sign any non-disclosure agreements If you wish.

What information do we want?

We want to see visuals; we want to know if a prototype exists of your product; we want to know what materials it uses, estimated hours of labour involved in making and what machinery is required to make it