The Mercantile at NuPath - 'Where Collaboration Meets Innovation'

Something very progressive and world-changing is happening within the walls of 147 New Boston Street, but ironically the mission at NuPath is to break down barriers and scale the social walls that surround them. As a leading provider for developmentally disabled adults, NuPath looks to their guiding principles to define their mission to provide for people with disabilities the support needed to live, work, learn, grow and participate to their fullest potential in their communities. To this end, NuPath’s ‘in-house’ activation aims to provide community-based readiness for their population of individuals.

NuPath’s Mercantile is a great example of how organizational-based training can support career development and societal advancement for those with interests in arts and crafts, retail employment and creative development. Handmade products such as blankets, scarves, jewelry, pottery and a variety of apparel-related pieces are for sale in a store setting at NuPath’s headquarters, as well as through on-line outlets such as craigslist and ebay. “The Mercantile was originally set up to have a country store feel and promote artistic expression, but over time it has aligned better with our guiding principles to establish social skills and abilities that will ultimately promote community-focused engagement,” say NuPath’s leader Dan Harrison.

Harrison goes on to say, “Our Mercantile is more than just about arts and crafts, or even the generation of revenue for the organization, but rather the social development of the people we serve and their future contributions to their communities. The skills learned in the Mercantile are completely transferrable to community-based establishments in the numerous cities and towns our program participants populate.”

The Mercantile is one small example of NuPath’s innovative execution of programs designed to instill confidence in the people they support through progressive programs and community-based goal setting. “We promote social inclusion and engagement,” claims Harrison. “In the case of our Mercantile, collaboration and innovation come together to create a sense of belonging through sharing and resulting in complete unification- perfectly defining our guiding principles and organizational mission.”

The Mercantile is open for business during the weekdays from 9am-2pm at NuPath, Inc., 147 New Boston Street, Woburn MA 01801.