Handz On Hope

Handz on Hope (and Schirlyn Kamara) is a blessing! With a loving and perceptive eye to the long term needs of the community and it's youth, HoH offers opportunities for personal and professional growth; pride and responsibility-development and; skill-building and empowerment; commitment, passion and creativity. Exactly the values that a community needs from it's youth today. Well done, HoH!

Lancaster City Indie Retail Week

Handz On Hope & NuLife at Nimble Thimble bring sustainability to Lancaster with their mission of upcycling fabric and other found materials, and they bring hope and help build community with their programs for children teens and adults.
Make sure to visit the shop at 45 N Market street and make sustainability a part of your everyday life!
https://handzonhope.squarespace.com/store

This nonprofit is as inspiring an organization I have ever seen. The mission is needed because our planet is crying out. The world is too small to hold the kindness that Schirlyn has.

Handz on Hope is a pillar of the Lancaster community. Constantly reaching out and engaging to help everybody, especially BIPOC in these extremely trying times. I fully trust Handz on Hope and Schrliyn with funding, responsibility, ethics, leadership, respect and friendship. This is a beautiful organization I intend to stick with for as long as i live in Lancaster. And I ain't ever leavin' Lanc.

Handz on Hope is a great non profit organization. I was a volunteer for them and enjoyed my time there. The volunteers would help kids with "up cycling". The owner made sure that we were involved and learned how to turn used materials into something that can be useful. I suggest individuals volunteer or come into the store because one can learn a lot from the owner and it is helpful for the community to continue what Mrs. Kamara is doing.

I am a senior at Millersville University and i was able to work with this organization this past semster. Schirlyn is a very driven person who had a great vision for her organization that was a great fit for the lancaster area. During my time there i was able to work with the kids that came there to learn more about what she had to offer. This organization has been growing over the years with the help of some other Millersville students and i hope to see it continue to grow. This organization is a good opppotunity for the kids to learn more about the busniess world and be able to gain new skills that they can carry on and teach to other people. Handz on Hope is a great example of helping the eoconomy for the better and to teach skills that can stay with you for a lifetime.

I had the pleasure of learning about and working with this nonprofit through being a student at Millersville University. The vision of this organization is what Lancaster needs. I was able to work with the young kids at Handz On Hope and a saw a strong eagerness to learn from them. I really hope to see this organization thrive to give these kids an excellent opportunity to learn and teach what they have learned with the broader community. Handz On Hope helps to brighten their path wherever they are headed in their lives.

At Youth Go Green, I had the amazing opportunity to help kids understand and make furniture out of disposable materials. This program by far is a program that helps the Youth realize their potential and develops within them the creativity that is waiting to be used. And that's why I enjoyed volunteering for Youth Go Green. I even learned a few things myself from this program.

This Program is and has been such a great impact for Everyone in our Community. The youth share their talents, the adults volunteer their wisdom and we all gain knowledge as we upcycle and invent together.

It's been an interesting experience for me. The structure is free flowing which allows the kids to exercise their creativity and autonomy in deciding what activity they want to participate in from day to day. The camp gives them opportunities to sell their crafts on Market days and seeing the kids excited to sell and tell people what they're learning makes the experience worth it.

My experience with this non-profit organization was one i will always remember. Schirlyn, the organizer of this non-profit organization, is one of the most passionate most understanding people i have ever worked for. She cares for her community and the people in it so much and she always sees the positive side of things rather than the negative. She will pray for a stranger in the street if she has to, she will offer to help others in need, and she will listen to anyone that needs to be listened to. im proud to be a member of this community and be by Schirlyns side this summer.

My experience at Youth Go Green Camp is one of the most fun experiences I've honestly had. I really enjoy the kids I work with and Ms. Shirlyn

my experience of a counselor at this camp has been challenging but over all nice i have learned many new things such as having better communication skills and more this summer has truly been fun and interesting

my experience at camp been good so far the kids are wonderful and creative

Working with the Handz on Hope summer camp has been an interesting experience. Having a free schedule and allowing the kids to use their creativity in their own way is what makes this camp fun and different. Also learning how to sew and up-cycle are great life skills that we are taught here at handz on hope. Working has been fun and interesting and im glad i took the job.

Working with Handz on Hope has been an experience like no other. As a Youth Go Green camp counselor, this has been my first time working with children. The kids bring a lot of energy and joy into my life. Miss Shchirlyn's "free style" of camp is very unique and has taken some time to get used to as a counselor, however I know that is whats best for the children to unleash their freedom and creativity to create more goods.

This is a great place for teaching service-learning project to students of all ages about sustainability and upcycling. They learn about recycling, upcycling, and civic responsibility. The owner is an enthusiastic and hard-working person. She has a great vision for her services such as youth camps and teaching unemployed women sewing skills and employability. Nimble-Thimble is the location of this non-profit organization. It is near the farmers' market in the city of Lancaster, PA. The community has benefited in a number of ways from services of Handz-on-Hope with its great vision of environmental sustainability, its great location, and the great ideas of the owner/manager of this program (Schirlyn Kamara).

I volunteered with Handz on Hope for four months and was impressed with the incredible opportunities this non-profit offers the community and more specifically today's children and youth. Miss Kamara has a heart for her work, and it will be exciting to see the impact this non-profit can have.

During my career in social services and as the neighborhood revitalization administrator for the city of Lancaster, Schirlyn has always been a driving force cultivating new educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for youth in her community and city-wide. Handz on Hope is her most ambitious endeavor thus far, and she has already proven that her experience, compassion, and ability to mentor will make it a successful one. We are lucky to have her in our city!

I had to the pleasure of working with a group of women from different walks of life. Some of them could hardly speak English. But they had one thing in common. They were in the sewing Club. I was impressed with shirlyns compassion for these women. It is wonderful to see what how much work she's put in to help these women and children in our community.

Handz On Hope is a great non profit that encourages young women & men to be entrepreneur's as well as learning a trade that will help them throughout their life. Schirlyn has created a special non profit that will continue to benefit the young men and women of Lancaster, Pa.
Chris Henderson

The director of this nonprofit is dedicated, passionate and tireless in her pursuit of a better planet.

I was able to witness all of the unique things that made our of things most would call scraps. What a great way to spark creativity in youth and adults!

What a great non profit! Helping girls learn to sew and recycle are a winning combination for Lancaster! Schirlyn and her volunteer staff are patient, kind and great teachers! Teaching girls to be creative and resourceful will help them become successful women! Thank you Hands on Hope for all you do in our Lancaster community! We love you! From: Judy McCloud, President/Founder of SisterLove Christian Ministries, Inc.

The people involved in running Handz on Hope have truly blessed me in ways I can't even describe. They've impacted my brought it strength I didn't even know I had. I'm so grateful to have them in my life... And for the work they do in the Lancaster community. I can't wait to get my son in camp so he can have his own experience with this great great of individuals.

I've known Ms. Kamara for some time and she's always been a great motivator and influenced woman in our community. She gives her time and talents to help and teach others. Giving back to the community is a top priority for her!

Handz on hope has helped me out big time especially during the summer with the summer camp. Trying to find a affordable camp to put my son in while I work was really huge! I have seen what she has done with helping teach people how to sew and the testimonials of people I run into that lift her up is amazing! Keep Dooing what you do because what your doing is not in vain

Handz On Hope is providing a unique and valuable service to our community. Their summer camps offer children a hands-on learning environment where they upcycle all kinds of materials, learning design thinking and entrepreneurial skills while having fun! The fabric shop provides ways to reuse fabrics and other materials that would otherwise go to the landfill, and their classes offer a means for anyone to learn to sew... a skill that not many of us get to learn any more. It is inspiring to see Schirlyn Kamara's dedicated work, and to see how learning to make things with your hands, at any age, can have such a positive impact.

Schirlyns program gives inner city kids an avenue that no one else is giving them to show their creativity by taking once used items and finding new uses for them. #upcycling

Handz On Hope is doing a lot in this community the person who founded it has been doing a lot of work in this community for years. They are the only ones doing the kind of work that they are doing here in Lancaster. They offer upcycled alternatives to all kinds of stuff like cardboard, plastic, fabric and old torn or stained unwanted clothes as a way to reduce waste in our community without taking it to the landfield. They educate kids and adults that participate in thier programs on the benefits of upcycling, so that when given the choice, they purchase an upcycled product over selecting a new one.

I would like to say that both the camp program and the sewing program are great and inspiring for both Youth and adults. Looking from the outside in at the programs ...I have seen they have provided such insight to all of the children who attend their on how to accomplish things in a great manner with a lot of hands-on experience and even how to make things and sell them for profit which is something that will go a long way for their future while being in an environment that is very empowering. The sewing program is also great because it is something that can occupy your time while being creative and feeling accomplished when you're done with your project. This is something that I wish would have been around a long time ago and am grateful that it is now. It's nice to know that we have something like this in our area that I pray we'll be here for a very long time. Schirlyn Kamara is a very great woman who has a lot to give and doesn't mind doing it. She is very well loved by many. A big thank you to her and all who are involved in both programs along with her!

Altheria Cruz

Wonderful organization that supports the young people in today's world to cultivate them into leaders.
Rachel Gore

Handz on Hope enables residents to learn new skills and become self-sufficient. The camp for children in the summer, Master Recycler program for youth, and NuLife sewing workshops and store are vital assets to Lancaster.