SOUTH DEERFIELD — Those behind a new thrift store moving into an open storefront on North Main Street beside Jerry’s Place want more than secondhand clothing sales.
“Our mission is to improve the quality of life of elders and caregivers,” said Susan Pratt, a Shelburne resident and director of Tripp Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit behind the Giving Circle Thrift Shop, the first of its kind, scheduled to open April 7 in South Deerfield’s village center.
Pratt sat behind a table in the sun-filled space Friday morning. Around her, a half-dozen volunteers cleaned the floor and organized donations onto clothing racks.
“Our goal is to keep costs low enough to benefit caregivers, but high enough to make money,” Pratt said. “As you can see looking around, everything here is donated — the racks, the shelves.”
The store will be managed by volunteers — with the exception of a few paid foundation staff members — and stocked through donations from the community, keeping overhead expenses at a minimum to maximize the store’s financial ability to help educate caregivers.
Giving Circle Thrift Shop will serve as a funding stream to subsidize costs for elder care training programs offered through the Tripp Memorial Foundation, which is contracted by Greenfield Community College. The foundation trains certified nursing assistants, home health aides, patient care assistants, and offers continuing education courses for working professionals.
The project is more than a cash cow, though. Giving Circle Thrift Shop is also intended to raise public awareness about the plight of home health care aid workers, who, as a general rule, are overworked and underpaid, according to Emma Golden, a member of the foundation’s board of directors.
Influenced by the nation’s strong economy, Pratt said the home health care industry is “experiencing a crisis of recruitment” because potential workers can earn more elsewhere for less effort. As a result, caregivers across all sectors (including those in nursing homes), increasingly work long and often uncompensated hours.
“Direct caregivers work below the poverty line. They work hard for little compensation,” Pratt said. “This is our initiative to help recruitment and retainment of direct caregivers.”
One positive aspect that has come from this change is that caregivers who do enter the home health care field are passionate about the work, and care about patients, Pratt said, noting her own longevity in the career.
Pratt began working as a direct caregiver at a nursing home in Amherst at 16 years old, and over the past two decades, respectively, opened and sold Collective Home Care and a local O’Connell Care At Home chapter, both in Deerfield. Influenced by those experiences, she started Tripp Memorial Foundation in 2001 to support, advocate for and train home healthcare workers.
Looking ahead, as populations continue to age and assuming the economy continues growing, Pratt predicted the financial issues health care aid workers face will get worse over the next several decades.
“I’d like to see (the Giving Circle Thrift Shop) as a model that spreads all over the country,” she continued, highlighting future plans to change the name of the Tripp Memorial Foundation to Western Massachusetts Care Collaborative, which she said better describes the foundation’s mission.
Meanwhile, Giving Circle Thrift Shop is in need of donations, Pratt said. Specifically, the new thrift store is accepting financial contributions and used clothing, household and children’s items, and toys. Donated items must be in good condition, ready to sell, because the North Main Street storefront doesn’t have much storage space, Golden said.
Anyone who wants to donate can set up a drop-off time by emailing givingcirclethrift@gmail.com. The thrift store currently isn’t staffed full time, so a drop-off time is necessary. For more information, visit www.trippmemorial.org.
You can reach Andy Castillo
at: acastillo@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 263
On Twitter: @AndyCCastillo