The philosophy behind Kind Karma’s handcrafted jewelry, made by at-risk youth

Jewelry pieces are often sentimental, being symbols of love and relationships. Kind Karma employs at-risk and transitioning homeless youth to handcraft their jewelry pieces, creating pieces that are symbols of members of the community around you. Like the name suggests, Kind Karma’s philosophy is based on the principle that “if we spread good, then good will not only come back to us but will continue to spread.”

Laurinda, the founder of Kind Karma, and designer of the pieces on their website, started the company in 2017 and personally trains all of the youth employees they hire. Proceeds from the jewelry purchases are returned to the employees to support their personal goals.

Based out of Toronto, Kind Karma ships internationally and partners with different Canadian companies for retail orders. “Our goal, however, is to eventually expand so we have a Kind Karma office in every major city across Canada,” Laurinda says. “We feel that at-risk youth tend to fall in cracks in big cities because they are just another person within a huge population so we would love to help all Canadian youth.”

I spoke with Laurinda to learn more about her company.

What initially sparked the idea for Kind Karma? 

L: I have always dreamed of being an entrepreneur and I remember when I was working full-time I would have a different business idea every week to share with my co-workers! There are so many possibilities to starting a business but what was most crucial for me was that I needed to create something that made a difference in society and was a catalyst for positive social change. I have always loved making jewellery and found it an extremely therapeutic hobby so I thought I would create a company that revolved around the concept of art therapy based employment. Given what these youth have been through and the many mental and emotional challenges they have faced, I understood that some of them were not capable of working in traditional avenues of employment or dealing with retail customers or food service. So I decided to create an opportunity that still allowed youth to achieve some financial independence while working in an environment that felt more like art class than work. The more personal environment also allows for a greater mentorship opportunity and getting to really know our youth employees allows me to help them on a more personal level. We are only a year old so bringing this company to life has been a lot of work and wonderful partnerships with like-minded organizations similarly dedicated to helping at-risk and transitioning homeless youth reach their full potential.

How big is your team of youth in Toronto?

L: Kind Karma is only a year old and we are happy to say we now have six youth employees on our team! We started last year with one so we are thrilled to have grown our team so much and hopefully if we can raise more awareness of our mission, we can continue to grow and help more youth towards their goals.

Where do you see Kind Karma in a year from now?

L: We would love to be able to continue to grow and build our team. We are still young so we are constantly working on building awareness of our brand and our mission. Eventually in the long term, I would love to see Kind Karma in every major city across Canada (I feel that youth tend to fall in the cracks more in big cities due to large population sizes) so we can help Canadian youth from coast to coast. I would also love to continue advancing our current youth into positions that they may feel inspired to take on – for example, if a youth expresses interest in marketing or sales, we would love to develop his/her skills in that area so they can transition into any role within that department if they should choose. I would love to eventually see a whole vertically integrated company completely run by street youth! Lastly, I would also love for Kind Karma to possibly partner with different artisans to create more opportunities – many of our youth express interest in a variety of creative fields so we would love to eventually expand the Kind Karma collection to possibly include houseware or clothing or different accessories.

You can follow Kind Karma on instagram @kindkarmaco to see their super pretty designs, or check out their website www.kindkarmaco.com.