The Story of Encore
The idea for encore emerged during the summer of 2009 when, one night after dinner, my dad challenged me to start a resale store. I've always been interested in business, (I recently built a website for students taking AP Exams, called http://etestnotes.com/). After being given the idea, I wrote a business plan and presented the idea to the Elders of Holy Trinity. We had seen a model that worked before since some of our elders helped launch Twice is Nice. The elders in turn recommended that we start the store through Hope for Chicago (Holy Trinity’s Mercy and Justice not-for-profit), which had the framework and vision that made Encore possible. Encore evolved through a number of Hope for Chicago discussions, but the dream really started to make progress after we hired Kristi Brockway to be the store's manager. Kristi found retail space for Encore to rent and did everything, from buying ...
