Verein Neustart (Beneficial: Former Offenders) - Heinrich Staffler (Workshop acting manager) heinrich.staffler@neustart.at www.neustart.at

Produce unique designed,high-end longboards upcycling snowboards,maximizes social impact: highintegration of employing young former offender,young women with social problems on production process

Social Purpose:

RUFFBOARDS represents a genuine opportunity for change, offering ex-prisoners the chance to manufacture trendy products, do product design, and gain qualifications as well as experience in an exciting, operational business and in- depth guidance to find full-time employment within the production industry upon release. RUFFBOARDS operates a workshop in Vienna and provides on the-job-training together with Verein Neustart (Non-profit-organization).

Social Impact:

The aim of RUFFBOARDS is to reduce re-offending rates of ex-offenders by training and placing graduates upon their release within the industry. Ex-offenders tend to be low-skilled, the majority lacking any academic or vocational qualification. Most are long-term unemployed or have never entered the labor market. Their lack of social and life skills can be a major barrier, not just to entering the workplace, but also to coping with everyday life and to be reintegrated into a community.

Innovative Character:

Leveraging social and environmental consciousness in the design, production, distribution, and branding of consumer products is not new, but has – so far – not been applied in this fully integrated way to the boarding market. Longboarding is a fast-growing segment of the skateboard market and a highly appealing trend with mass-market appeal. RUFFBOARDS offers a unique, holistic, and highly attractive package that combines high-end design, top quality and the trendy appeal of longboarding, with the social and environmental consciousness of the upcycling approach and a manufacturing process that integrates marginalized groups, and raises awareness about their condition. This combination is extremely attractive for the highly dynamic LOHAS segment (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability –responsible consumers), who are the trendsetters and opinion-leaders for larger parts of society. On the technology side, RUFFBOARDS has been innovating around the entire design andproduction process, resulting in a proprietary manufacturing and upcycling process that is highly scalable and can easily be replicated in various settings in order to allow for maximum impact

Website:

http://www.ruffboards.com

Country:

Austria

Scaling Trajectory:

Capacity Building

Related Societal Trend(s):

Environment