Our History
In the fall of 1984, several people began discussing the idea of getting SelfHelp Village Crafts started. [from meeting minutes] “In April, a meeting was called to gauge interest and quite a few optimistic faces appeared. A tentative opening date was set, and all began the work of gathering funds with which to start the shop and spreading the word about it.” It was a time when these stores were popping up across the country but had always been part gift store, part thrift store. Since central Illinois had “plenty of thrift stores”, they decided to go for the gifts only---making Champaign, IL the first SelfHelp Crafts (later becoming Worldwide Gifts and then Ten Thousand Villages) store to ever open with only fair trade crafts. The goals for our program were written as:
- To help craftspeople of developing countries earn a living by providing a marketing outlet for their crafts.
- To educate people in this country about life in other countries
- To be a forum for people of various backgrounds to share ideas, work together and to generally grow in spirit as they cooperate in a group effort whose effects are much more far-reaching than those of any one person could be.
- To move us toward becoming part of one world family.
Through 40 years of business---one move, 3 names, just a few renovations, 4 recessions, 1 pandemic, 7 managers, hundreds of volunteers and over $4 million dollars in sales of fairly traded crafts--we believe these goals are just a relevant to our work today as they were in 1985.
We continue to operate as a nonprofit organization, allowing the majority of our profits to be reinvested into our business model. We are primarily staffed by community volunteers and governed by a volunteer board of directors. We are verified members of the Fair Trade Federation, representing our belief in a world where trade can be used as a force for good, and where all people can thrive with dignity and respect.