The Impact of Choice: A Partnership with arc Thrift Stores

Written by Megan Waters, ACC Development & Communications Specialist

Rebeca (left) & her mother Carmen (right)

Rebeca & Carmen browsing furniture at an arc Thrift Store

Rebeca, her son Joaquín, and her mother Carmen arrived in Colorado earlier this year after fleeing political persecution in their home country of Venezuela.

With the help of ACC’s housing team, Rebeca, Carmen, and Joaquín were able to quickly move into an apartment furnished with donated household items and begin working to rebuild their lives in Denver.

Currently, Rebeca is participating in Ready for American Hospitality, ACC’s collaborative training program with the University of Denver that prepares refugees for employment in the hospitality industry. Eventually, she would like to go back to school to become a nursing assistant. She and Carmen also dream of owning their own home one day.

But although they aren’t ready to purchase their own house yet, Rebeca and Carmen are determined to create a home for themselves where they are.

Rebeca, ACC Caseworker Anna Hanel, and Carmen shopping at an arc Thrift Store

For refugee community members who aren’t able to work yet, it can be difficult to purchase items like clothes, furniture, and household supplies. Benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as “food stamps”, can only be used to purchase food items, and with the high cost of living in the Denver metro area, most if not all cash assistance is spent on rent and utilities.

This leaves many families with little money to pick out their own clothes, buy toys for their children, or choose items to decorate their new home. But having this agency in one’s everyday life is crucial to regaining a sense of control, independence, and normalcy.

Thanks to our partnership with arc Thrift Stores, ACC is able to provide refugee community members with vouchers that can be used as gift cards at arc stores. With these vouchers, families have the opportunity to decide what they need most and how they would like to spend the vouchers.

When Rebeca and Carmen were provided arc vouchers, they already knew one thing they wanted to purchase - a desk where Joaquin, who recently started high school, could study and do homework.

Rebeca and Carmen planned a trip to arc one Saturday morning with their ACC caseworker Anna Hanel, looking for a used desk with which they could surprise Joaquin. With the vouchers, Rebeca and Carmen were able to pick out and take home not just a desk, but also more cooking utensils and a storage cabinet for their apartment.

Rebeca, Carmen, and Joaquin were forced to flee their previous life in Venezuela for reasons beyond their control. But now, thanks to the support of community partners like arc Thrift Stores, their family and so many others have the opportunity to make Denver a place they can call home.

“Being able to buy furniture that you’re missing, that dresser that you need, and having the opportunity to take things out of your suitcases is the foundation of a new start in this country.

ACC helped us a lot when arriving here, but those details of having a space for socks, for undergarments, being able to buy pants and something to decorate…. That’s what people do in THEIR HOME, that’s what arc means to us: the opportunity to have a new home.”

— Rebeca (translated from Spanish by author)

Carmen and Rebeca with their new cabinet