New Horizons Thrift Store
Creating a dynamic social enterprise that fosters a spirit of community, provides for capacity building opportunities for volunteers, and improves employment related skills . . .
UPDATE: New Horizons Thrift Store --January25, 2023--
New Horizons Thrift Store was a unique place; it was a community space that we were reluctant to close during the pandemic. It was, however, fiscally challenging to maintain during the lockdowns, and we had to give up our lease at 520 James St. N.. The store has been closed ever since. Along the way, though, we did develop an exciting plan to reopen the store with a community outreach cafe attached. It was a great dream!
At its last meeting in 2022, our Board of Directors made the difficult decision to stop the search for a new location. After two years of looking for a new location in the north end of Hamilton, we have come up empty-handed. At the same time, all of our other programs have been growing by leaps and bounds. The food bank, as an example, used to have 11,000 visits annually; now, it's been visited over 22,000 times over the past 12 months. That's twice as much food going out the door!
Instead of continuing the search for a new location for New Horizons, we have decided to keep it closed for the foreseeable future, so that we can work on better resourcing our other programs. We need to increase the number of volunteers and staff working, and we need to figure out a way to expand our space at 40 Wood St. E.. We're talking about an addition or maybe building a brand new building! This is exciting news, even though we are disappointed that New Horizons will be put on hold for a bit.
