Shoppers strolling through Crown Center this summer may have been surprised to find a boutique with an exceptionally young staff.
No, retail workers don’t all look like kids anymore. You may have stumbled upon Beloved Resale Boutique for Women, a pop-up boutique staffed with local middle and high school girls from the We Are Beloved Summer School Program.
The boutique and the summer program are a project of KC-based nonprofit The Nia Project that focuses on supporting projects that build confidence, capacity and opportunity for Black girls and women.
The eight-week summer program for young women ages 12-17 focused on personal leadership, civic engagement and entrepreneurship.
“We were using the boutique as a carrot, really, because who wants to go to summer school and learn about literacy and math? Nobody,” says Terri Barnes, The Nia Project founder and president. “So to make it interesting. We put it around this idea of a boutique, and it worked: every girl wanted to work in the boutique.”
The Beloved Boutique and the summer program were both a huge success. Program participants received mentorship and lessons for four hours a day. The program started with 36 participants, with 30 completing the eight-week program. Participants who completed the program received a $500 stipend.
Crown Center management is so pleased with the shop, they offered to extend the store’s lease through the end of the year and the pop-up stores may continue even longer.
“It went very well this summer. The girls loved it, the customers loved it. We really enjoyed it,” says Barnes. “And we want to continue seeing if we can figure out a way to make this work in a hybrid kind of situation.”
Summer Entrepreneurship Training
The girls receive hands-on training in all aspects of running a retail business – from sourcing and pricing merchandise to customer service and money management. Barnes says the program is filling a critical gap, since many of the program participants were already running small businesses like hair styling, nail services and baking, but lacked the business acumen to take their ventures to the next level.
“African American women are opening the most businesses over the past several years,” Barnes explained. “We created it so that they could get hands-on, real experience, interacting with the public, using their voice, making decisions, pricing things, and growing.”
The community has embraced the young entrepreneurs, with the boutique enjoying brisk sales and receiving rave reviews from Crown Center visitors.
Retail Incubator
In addition to being stocked with new and gently used women’s clothing, shoes, and goods priced at a bargain, the boutique also features products from six local Black women-owned businesses, including candles, jewelry, artwork and more. Customers can expect a high-end, chic shopping experience, with new items arriving weekly.
Black Female Vendors at Beloved
Dee Milton – Kansas City Candle Company
Sher Mirador – Sherrlyn Designs
Clarissa Knighten – Rissa’s Artistic Design
Jennifer Johnson – JGYPSY Creations
Cassandra Coffee – Cassandra Coffee Photography
Brey – Artistically Brey
Tishay M. Terry (12-year old) – Shay’s Closet
With the program’s extension, Barnes and her team are now working to adapt the curriculum to a hybrid model, balancing in-person training on weekends with online learning during the school week. The goal is to keep the girls engaged and connected to the entrepreneurial opportunities, even though their academic schedules mean The Nia Project will need to hire someone to work the storefront during the week.
“We’re in transition, trying to figure out what that looks like – can we do more online programming, or have the girls commit to a certain number of in-person hours per week?” Barnes explained. “We may not have all the answers yet, but we’re determined to find a way to keep this momentum going, because the impact on these young women is meaningful.”
For those who’d like to get involved, item donations are accepted in person in the Crown Center Shops, and you can follow the boutique’s progress on The Nia Project’s facebook page, www.facebook.com/TheNiaProjectKC.
Beloved Boutique
2450 Grand Blvd, KCMO
Crown Center Shops, Level 1
Mon. to Sat. – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sun. – noon to 5 p.m.
