So we started a business. We called it The Intersection: Fair Trade. Our tagline is “At the corner of their story and yours.” Since we began, we’ve been introduced to many more stories. We’ve found out that everyone knows someone somewhere who could use a platform for their story and their goods. We've also found out that there’s a yearning in peoples’ hearts to connect to something greater and know that they are doing good.
For the first 8 years we went to every market, festival, fair, and church event we could get into. Our weekends were full of loading up, setting up, sharing stories, selling goods, packing up, and loading stuff back into wherever we were storing it. Sometimes we had great sales and shared a lot about our artisans. One time we drove all the way to Kamloops (3 hours away) and didn't make a dime. But during that time we learned, we grew, we developed, and our heart for the producers and the cause grew and grew.
What also grew in us was a passion for the rights of the enslaved and abused. We began to narrow our focus with our products and our time to seek out groups who were involved in the prevention, rescue, and rehabilitation of people who had been trafficked throughout the world. Human trafficking is one of the greatest sources of oppression and injustice in our world, and we want to do all we can to fight against it. Many of the products we began to carry were from survivors of trafficking, who had found a new start and new hope making goods and selling them as part of their rehabilitation.
In 2018, we opened our first brick and mortar store, which we simply called "The Intersection: Fair Trade." It was a store, but to us it was so much more than that. It was a place where we were able to educate about anti-trafficking. It was a place where we could meet others with a similar passion and share experiences. It was a place where there was another layer of stories intersecting and lives being changed. During that time we saw our team and our networks grow as we were able to connect with more like-minded people who had a heart for justice.
Tragically, in January 2020 we experienced a fire next door that flooded our store. We were just recovering from that, and had just re-opened when Covid restrictions came in, and we made the difficult decision to close our doors. While we were sad to see the store go, we were grateful to have an online presence still. We rode out 2020 online, and when it came to Christmas time, were offered a space to set up our offices and showroom in, so that people could still shop with us. We operated through Covid times with appointment shopping and online sales, until we were able to open again full-time once restrictions eased. Through all of this, our business began to pivot again. We began to have more and more opportunities to have survivors of trafficking actually join us in our space, and to train them in job skills. We developed a screen printing arm of our business so that we could continue to fund the Vocation Training program that was being birthed, and to use the screen printing as part of that training program.
Alongside the retail and screen printing, our other company Your Story Coffee moved into a mobile coffee trailer, with the dream of one day also having a barista training stream as part of our Vocation Training Center.
Despite any circumstance we face now, or have faced in our history, there are a few things we know. We know that every product has a story, and every purchase has an impact. We may not see it, but there is a ripple from any purchase made anywhere that affects real people in real places. We want to continue to provide or point people to ethical or fair trade alternatives for as many items on the market that we can.
What we also know is that there are millions of people enslaved in the world today that are in need of freedom, in need of hope, and in need of new skills and opportunities to help them start a new life and restore their dignity. We want to be a part of their stories as well, and do everything we can to be a part of that restoration process. That's our story so far, and we are excited that you've taken the time to read it, and maybe to participate in it in some way.
