Our Mission: Shop Repurpose is a nonprofit organization that utilizes the resale of luxury items to provide job readiness training, personal development, mentorship, and scholarships for higher education, while providing a platform for sustainability in the fashion industry.
At Repurpose Wardrobe, our Core Values guide our day to day work and how we represent the organization in and out of the office. Fueled by a passion for meaningful collaboration, Jessie Freschl, Entrepreneur and Founder, and Alexi Mortenson, Associate Director and RENEW Program Coordinator, spent fifteen hours working with Darra Landman, FIT professor and expert in “The Core Value Equation” to create the core values from brainstorming to writing.
As trainees in the RENEW Program, we take modules on the Core Values and how Repurpose lives them. We also create our own core values in this module and reflect on how to live them out in our life. After reflection and discussion about our own core values in practice, we participated in an “Around the World” exercise to discuss each core value in small groups. We discuss and write down examples for each value and, after cycling through each, each group circles what they believe are the three most powerful examples for each value. This then leads to collective discussion with the entire team to gain a deeper understanding of what resonates with each of us and how to live out the Repurpose’s values alongside our own.
Some of the associations we found with the core values include collaboration, initiative, inclusion, timeliness, dependability, self-care, and mission-driven.
In practice, these values appear in working collaboratively at large tables, giving and receiving feedback, greeting people at the start of the day, standing up and stretching every seventy minutes, drinking a lot of water, and making meaningful connections over the weekly whiteboard question and conversations about shared interests like reading, nature, and recipes.
These values appear in our day to day lives in how we interact with others and carry ourselves:
“The SRW core values appear in my life by purposefully leading, staying curious, and being authentic. I am constantly finding ways to improve my daily lifestyle, therefore by keeping an open mind and learning new things I can pour into myself and the world. “ - Janelis Gonzalez, Summer 2024 Social Media and Marketing Trainee
“For me, I have really been placing emphasis on microconnections both inside and outside of the office. For example, I introduced myself to someone in my workout class this morning. Before our core values sessions I tended to focus on the workouts only and neglect the opportunities to connect with the other people in class (which I feel a lot of people tend to do). I'm glad I did, it made the workout a much more enjoyable experience!” - Sam Giordano, Stylist
“Repurpose’s core values “Wellness Works” and “All In” inspire me to strive for excellence while ensuring that I take time to recharge.” - Natalie Lambrelli, Marketing Volunteer
“I see them all showing up in my life. I would say wellness works is something that really changed my world when I was in my twenties and feel it is so important for young people to think about. I was actually diagnosed with Chrohn's disease my senior year of college and even though they said diet and lifestyle didn't contribute to it.. When I implemented lifestyle changes that focused on wellness my life drastically improved.” - Jessie Freschl, Founder
“I can see the Repurpose core values helping my work in other jobs I have. Taking on a “no task too small” attitude has greatly increased my ability to understand where each person fits in to the bigger picture and to catch small issues early on before they become difficult to resolve. I find myself better equipped to determine my own work-life balance and maintain myself in and out of my work.” - Allison Stroman, Summer 2024 Copy and Blog Trainee
Our core values allow us to make active progress towards our mission and communicate effectively when speaking about who we are and what we do. If you are interested in learning more about what we do or want to get involved, let us know.