February Graduates: Women on the Move

We are proud to announce that two of our Creative Designers, Benita and Sandrine are graduating from Rebel Nell! Our recent alumnas have found new employment at Amazon in Metro Detroit. 

Through our partnership with Freedom House Detroit, we were happy to meet Benita and Sandrine and have them be a part of our team. Freedom House Detroit is an organization that provides supportive services and care for refugees seeking asylum in the United States and Canada. 

Benita began working at Rebel Nell during Spring of 2019. Later in the year, Sandrine joined us as a recommendation from Benita! We love the ability to take in recommendations of our participants of who we should hire because they ultimately become ambassadors for our program. 

Our partnership with Freedom House has expanded our ability to provide employment and support to a slightly different demographic of women with barriers to employment. Before this partnership, we had never served women who speak English as a second language, and we have learned a lot about the challenges of helping them connect with governmental institutions that aren’t always sympathetic to the language barrier. Our entire model at Rebel Nell is built on meeting people where they’re at and helping them get to where they want to go, which can look different for everyone. As a basis, we use employment time at Rebel Nell to develop the most necessary skills in any workplace, including attendance, communication and ability to take direction.

Rebel Nell hopes that during the time a Creative Designer is here it allows them the space, the freedom and the encouragement to become the best version of herself. Once someone can identify what the best track for them may be - we pull on every lever possible to make that happen with an “it takes a village” mentality. It takes a human being to look at another human being’s potential and give them a chance. We scour the landscape to find open positions that meet the needs of our participants, but we found that with the right empowerment strategies participants find opportunities themselves that fit them, and we focus on their transition into the next position. 

We couldn’t be more proud of Benita and Sandrine and we wish them nothing but success in their future endeavors. We’ll miss Sandrine’s contagious laugh and will never forget Benita’s best #OOTD fashion moments!