Meet Erin and Caren, both Workforce Coordinators who joined the ReUse team this past September. They help coordinate our job training program and provide support to apprentices and work-study students.
How long have you been working at ReUse? Have you always been in the position you are in now?
Erin: I started at ReUse in September in my current role as Workforce Coordinator, though I had worked with the Communications Team in 2018.
Caren: I’ve been working at ReUse since September. I started in this position and am happy to be part of the community.
Describe your current position and what you do in a few sentences.
E: I coordinate ReSET apprentices and work-study students, and support programming, recruitment, fundraising, and partnerships. I love helping people recognize their strengths and make the most of them.
C: I am a Workforce Coordinator, who coordinates the ReSET job training program for people who have barriers to getting or keeping employment. I support people in developing job skills and guide them through the process of preparing for and finding employment after the program. The program works because it provides a flexible, supportive environment where people can build those skills. This includes our retail, circular economy training program as well as ReSET Tech, which is an IT and computer refurbishment class.
What is your favorite part of working at ReUse?
E: It’s the people.
C: So many things, I love working with the people in the job training program, supporting them and learning from them. It’s also a really good group of people who work at ReUse – kind, unique, thoughtful, and creative, all working towards a shared mission.
How have you grown to understand the impacts of our mission statement (enhancing community, economy, and environment through reuse) through your work?
E: I learned a new way to describe ReSET’s relevance—‘social circularity’—where people reclaim their power and recirculate skills, confidence, and opportunities in the community.
C: What stands out to me is the focus on finding value – in things and in people that might initially be overlooked. I see that in the job training program, where people are supported as they build work skills and begin to rebuild their lives. That same feeling carries through the whole workplace – people can show up as they are, and their different strengths and neurotypes are part of what helps ReUse thrive.
Tell us a few fun facts about yourself?
E: I love learning, dancing, nature, and doing reuse art projects with my kids.
C: I used to own a vintage clothing store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for 12 years, and later worked supporting people with developmental disabilities and neurodivergence and their families. This role feels like a great combination of both. I’ve really missed the vintage and secondhand world, so it’s been great to be back around it at ReUse