Inking Out Homelessness in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City’s Homeless Alliance recently opened a new screen printing company with the aim of providing local people job skills to help transition them out of homelessness.

Curbside Apparel started as a pilot project, with grants helping to fund the purchase of the necessary equipment, The Oklahoman reports. The Homeless Alliance then collaborated with the local career and technology center, Metro Tech, to create a screen printing curriculum for program participants. Completing the training course earns them screen printing certification, and they subsequently work with Curbside Apparel for eight to twelve months. Afterwards, participants can use their acquired skills to seek employment in other screen printing businesses.

The program follows in the footsteps of other successful Homeless Alliance ventures, such as the Curbside Chronicle street magazine, Curbside Flowers, and Sasquatch Shaved Ice. The idea is to create a business that individuals want to join rather than matching them with jobs they wouldn’t necessarily enjoy, says Dan Straughan, executive director at the Homeless Alliance. “We have the magazine, and that’s one type of model. The snow cone stand is a food service model, and the floral design is really nice, but some people, maybe they’re not a flower person or a food service person, and being in a production environment like this is a good fit for them,” Straughan told The Oklahoman.

Curbside Apparel has already gathered support from the local community and organizations seeking screen printing services. The company has fulfilled orders for custom T-shirts, posters, and other items from various companies and groups, including the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Downtown OKC, and Allegiance Credit Union. The Homeless Alliance says the long-term goal is to establish a hub that would bring successful Curbside social enterprise models to other communities throughout the state.