Community Spotlight: Berkley, Michigan

Earlier this month, the Berkley Downtown Development Authority (DDA) proudly debuted its Downtown Berkley Shopping Bag for a Cause through a partnership between Better Life Bags, a custom handbag company located in Hamtramck, and Citizens Bank.

“The development of Downtown Berkley Shopping Bag for a Cause is a meaningful partnership between the Berkley DDA and Citizens Bank that makes an impact in our community,” said Rebecca Smith, founder/CEO of Better Life Bags. “This project has allowed us to expand employment – an additional 300 hours of work to the women we employ – for the life of this project. In the world of the under-employed, that is significant.”

Each Downtown Berkley Shopping Bag is hand cut and sewn at Better Life Bags, a small company that employs women who have significant barriers to employment. The bags, which are screen printed by Berkley’s own Armadillo Printwear on Twelve Mile Road, feature the graphically bold birds taken from a mural on the exterior of Elwin & Co. Bakery on Coolidge Highway. Malt, aka Brown Bag Detroit, created the mural during the DDA’s 2017 mural program. One of Detroit’s favorites street artists, Malt is a self-taught muralist who works and lives in metro Detroit. He donated the use of his artwork specifically for this initiative.

“A year ago, the Berkley DDA started looking at how it was spending its money on promotional products for its events,” said Vivian Carmody, executive director of the Berkley DDA. “The Board decided it needed to ‘walk the talk’ of supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs and thus began our journey to locally sourcing a bag. We knew we needed a corporate partner, and Citizens Bank seemed the perfect match because of its emphasis on workforce development.”

President of Citizens Bank Michigan Richard Hampson noted, “When Vivian brought this idea to me, I found it really compelling. Supporting those seeking to overcome barriers to enter the workforce, the unique local aspect of this project, and the quick results that it would garner, were hard to ignore. We couldn’t pass it up.

The DDA’s initial purchase of 1,000 bags will allow the organization to customize bags for the DDA’s signature events, such as Ladies Night Out and MerriMonth.

Sponsored in part by Citizens Bank, the shopping bags will be available for $10 each or $5 with a purchase beginning Friday, July 13, at Downtown Berkley’s Art & About event.

The Downtown Berkley Shopping Bag initially will be available at Berkley Eyewear and Local Sunglass Co., Have You Any Wool?, The Neighbor’s Shoppe, Peninsulas and Vitrine Gallery & Gifts.

About Downtown Berkley:

The Berkley Downtown Development Authority is a community-driven organization striving to enhance the shopping experience, economic vitality and physical appearance of Coolidge Highway and Twelve Mile Road — Berkley’s traditional commercial Districts. The organization strives to achieve its mission by being creative, focused, transparent, forward-thinking and engaged with its Downtown stakeholders and community. For more information visit https://downtownberkley.com/.