Restyling Teenagers Future with furniture

Hey you,

Fun Facts.. Ok not so fun facts 

• Did you know that over 600000 tonnes of hazardous wood furniture ends in landfill each year in the UK alone? Thats enough furniture to fill Wembley Stadium 5 times. What if I also told you 51% of this could be reused with minor repair or over 65% with remanufacturing 
• Did you also know that before Covid 19 over 25% (upto 40% in some areas of UK) of 14-16 year olds were disengaged from education?
• And i know I dont need to mention the new unemployment statistics the whole world is facing right?

My name is Jax but most of my customers know me as Ree-Styles  and I am the founder of Restyle Remanufacturing LTD. I have created a sustainable solution to  all of the above but I need you're help... go grab a cuppa and give me the next ten minutes of isolation to explain 

So primarily since 2016 when my life was turned upside down ( but thats a whole different story) I have been restyling furniture to keep the wolf from the door now i use the word restyle over upcylce because my method is different. You see like upcylcers across the world i began my furniture journey with chalk paint and honestly from day 1 i hated it but it was my love for creating bold designs using wallpaper that would eventually introduce me to the world of self adhesive vinyl a much less labour intensive process that had the added benefit of being applicable to laminated and veneer furniture something chalk paint couldn't do.. so while upcyclers moved onto mineral paints which were slightly less labour intensive I began to master the art of wrapping.Fast forward to now and I make a full time income working 3 days a week and i still work from my garage. 

It wasnt until late 2018 that I got into the enviromental side of furniture. I gained mentoring from experts within companies such as Ikea, Zero Waste Scotland, Innovate Scotland and SQA as well as gaining a growth scholarship with Ayrshire business women but I was all over the place I had so many ideas and it was just a massive jumble I knew I had one of the first cost effective recycling solutions for laminated furniture ( and so did my mentors) but I wanted a worldwide project and honestly i was unable to cope with demand in one City so I went back to the drawing board. I spent months working out how many staff worshops and storefronts it would take to create a UK wide project and when i concluded that was impossible I researched franchising inside out and only when I concluded that human error also made this impossible did i begin to research the minefield that is online courses and memberships. EVENTUALLY I had found the solution and so I began working on creating my own online courses, membership site and online community however i got distracted when my own son became disengaged from education..

My son had a pretty brutal experience from the moment he stepped foot into academy quickly becoming a target he became withdrawn and at his worst point often declared suicidal tendancies now i made a choice here and it is one i stand by i chose my sons mental health over his education and with time and support my Son bounced back and he returned to school with a completely new mentality the bullies left him alone  and although he attended school the only subjects he had any inerest in were woodwork and craft and design. Fast forward to third year (this year) and my son contracted glandular fever resulting in him being off for 5 weeks and he wasnt long back until he fell causing a complex fracture that ensured his attendance was minimal for the next 6 weeks. Of course I contacted the school and asked for work for him to do but it never appeared so I began to take things into my own hands using my mentor at SQA to help advise me on the accreditations i could give not only my son but other teenagers in similar situations whilst teaching them how to create sustainable incomes recycling furniture destined for landfill  

At around the same time I heard about another boy who was a friend of a friends son. This boy had been excluded from education at 14 and the education department and this boys mother were at loggerheads when it came to a solution. I spent some time with this family and agreed to contact the education department and explain that until a solution was found I would work with him. I quickly met with the local eduaction department who were  keen to allow me to role forward with a full programme across local schools however there were the usual hoops to jump through in the meantime though i was welcome to pilot with the boy in question with one rule.. he didnt enjoy it that much that he didnt want to go back  to school... I failed on that one heres what Jamie has to say..

So 2020 began in a blur of teaching, website development and vlogging all while creating enough income to do all of the above and keep the wolf at bay and along came covid-19 turning the world upside down.

I would like to say that everything will go back to normal soon and if they do great but 25% of our teenagers are still disengaged and the longer we are in isolation the higher this number will get! Why? Because whilst some kids will recieve a half decent education at home others will recieve none at all. The question on the lips of most education officials is if they struggled to close the attainment gap before Covid how can they begin to address it afterwards. And projects like this will become vital in ensuring all teenagers gain access to further education.

So here is my plan during lockdown and i hope it can give you some plans to kill time as well..

Step 1 - I have almost complete my website which you are welcome to check out on here you will find a number of short DIY courses including how to restyle ur current furniture using Vinyl, Fabric, Wallpaper and Sticker Art... Ever fancied a  kitchen makeover ? Theres a course for that too! However my limited skills have taken me as far as i can and i need a professional to finish the backend of the membership site which will also give access to over 100 designs in my portfolio, online forums and a community chat feature. By offering you discounted access to this in return for advance payment I will use a small amount of funds to finish this off immediately

Step 2 - Create a fromal course structure for disengaged kids that should have a mix of professional qualifications, work experience and core skills and gaining accreditation for this. Although i have the advantage of my mentors all being at home bored this will still come at a cost with accreditaion being the most cpstly part of the project however once accredited I can

Step 3 - Call upon the community that we have created together to find those who have taken my DIY courses further and made use of my business model course with the aim that thes individuals can lalso train to teach disengaged teenagers in their area and hopefully this will allow us to close the attainment gap across the world. 

Did i mention that I personally save over a tonne of furniture from landfill every month (roughly 40 sets of drawers) so imagine the effect we could have together?