About Us

Transforming pain to purpose.

We're a catalyst for local and global communities.

Locally

Artisans graduate from our program typically within 3 to 6 months. These amazing women become our beloved sisters and friends in this journey of life, and continue to receive support post-graduation through our alumni program.

Globally

We partner with NGO’s and artisan groups in Africa and South and Central America, empowering women and families through economic mobility. Our global artisans amaze us with their joy for life, even amidst great challenges as they overcome the impacts of extreme poverty, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and genocide.

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Since we are a 501c3 nonprofit, 100% of your purchase goes back into our organization to help the women and families we serve. Our artisans are paid upfront for their work and creations, which means all financial risk falls on BraveWorks and not our artisans.

At BraveWorks

We provide programs for women in Charlotte, North Carolina and we partner with artisan projects in ten other countries. Locally, we teach women skills in jewelry production and other artisanal creations. The products created provide supplemental income for these women, as well as an income stream for our organization.

The women served, called artisans, are referred by non-profit community partners as they seek to overcome situations such as human trafficking, abuse, addiction, incarceration, generational poverty, and ethnic persecution.

Once in our program, they create an Artisan Empowerment Plan that documents their physical, emotional, and spiritual growth dreams for the future. The plan breaks their dream down into achievable goals and begins with three basic work readiness milestones: Arriving to work on time, having a good attitude, and working diligently at assigned tasks. We then connect the artisans to employment opportunities and other resources in the local community as needed to reach milestones and accomplish goals around employment, education, housing, continued sobriety, financial literacy, ESL, supportive community, emotional health, and skill development.

Our mission is to empower women and families overcoming trauma and injustice, bridging the gap from pain to purpose through:

Impactful connections

Inspired creations

Economic confidence

IN CHARLOTTE, OUR WORK ADDRESSES TWO KEY LOCAL ISSUES:

Economic Mobility

We help women who have fallen off the ladder of economic mobility gain (or regain) that access.

Cross-Cultural Reconciliation

We build communities where people from different races, socio-economic groups, religions, cultures, and ethnicities work side-by-side in love.

BraveWorks is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, EIN #32-0423402, empowering women and families overcoming trauma and injustice through impactful connections, inspired creations, and economic confidence.

We partner with dozens of organizations to better serve our community and world.  Brave Step, one of our partners, is a separate nonprofit entity, with no legal affiliation with BraveWorks.  You can learn more about Brave Step here. You can learn about all of our valued partners here.