We are excited to share that another social enterprise, Orchardville has joined the supplier range with their handcrafted Irish Linen Scarves, providing another beautiful product with purpose that customers can gift to a friend or loved one.
Who is Orchardville and what do they do?
Orchardville is a social enterprise that is committed to changing the lives of people with learning disability and autism. They believe that with the right support, any individual with a learning disability or autism can reach their full potential and achieve their employment aspirations. Providing throughout Belfast, they support people with learning disability and/or autism aged 16-65 through a range of individualised services and programmes.
Social enterprises form a key part of their provision, allowing participants to experience work in a real business environment with onsite support from vocational mentors.
The Irish Linen Scarves, known as the Worthy collection, are made onsite in their Orchardville workshop in East Belfast. I had the pleasure of spending some time there where I got to meet and chat with participants and their mentors and learn more about the scarves from the Worthy collection. The atmosphere was so welcoming and relaxed. It is clear that the participants really enjoy their work and have a wonderful relationship with their mentors who support and help them to flourish in their roles.
The Orchardville Team kindly let me observe how the linen scarves are made and the process it takes to get them to the final product. I managed to capture some video footage of the process along the way, so a short video of this will be made available to view across our socials very soon!
After seeing first-hand how the scarves are created, I can assure you that the attention to detail that goes into making each individual scarf is something else. The product has a very special trait in that each scarf and its design is individual i.e. since the scarves are crafted by hand, it means each one will always end up completely unique (just like Orchardville!), so no two scarves will ever be the same. There is also no wastage in producing the scarves, as any leftover material will go back into making another scarf or creatively used to make other items such as their gift cards – see photo to the right!
A thoughtful and worthwhile gift that offers so much more than any other regular piece of clothing.
See some additional details about the scarves below:
- Woven in the west coast of Ireland and hand crafted in Belfast by a talented team of adults with learning disability or autism.
- To look after your scarf, treat it well and hand wash only, but rarely.
- All scarves are approximately 200cm x 30cm.
- 100% of profits support the wider work of Orchardville whose mission is to change the lives of people with learning disability and/or autism for the better through mentoring and support programmes.
You can now purchase the Worthy Irish Linen scarves via the Storybox Build a Box range where you can curate your own gift for someone special.
Build your own gift with purpose here.