New London - It all started with a women's crafts group at the Homeless Hospitality Center led by Alex Matthiessen, which fit in with an Art for Self-Awareness therapy program taught by Marlies Parent, which then morphed into a new organization called Reinspire intended to help people with challenges turn their lives around.

The idea, said social entrepreneur Hannah Gant, is to offer the homeless, people with disabilities, those with mental health issues and others a place where their work matters - and to make money at the same time.

"So many people have so much to offer," said Gant, whose beneficial corporation Metamorphosis has been seeding a variety of entrepreneurial projects in the region over the past year. "There are a lot of wasted resources and wasted talents of people - terrible inefficiencies."

About a half dozen women have been meeting regularly next to the Red Tail Learning Center on Masonic Street to plot the course of Reinspire, but Gant said they need more help to reach a critical mass to get the project off the ground. An open house Jan. 24 at 18 Masonic St. is scheduled to introduce interested people from the region to the plans for Reinspire.

The idea, she said, would be to co-develop Reinspire alongside the Spark Makerspace cooperative that is bringing artists and artisans together in the city to create a space where a broad range of hands-on talents can coalesce around shared equipment and training. The Makerspace group has been working out of the same building on Masonic Street across from the U.S. Post Office, but is hunting for a new location that could be open by the spring, Gant said.

The Reinspire group said it plans to use mostly recycled material to create functional, distinctive products that do not take too long to make. Initial products might include potholders made out of rope and discarded fabrics, for instance, though the process for making them could prove too time-consuming to be profitable, Gant said.

Gant said she hopes to identify three products that could be marketed by Reinspire. The products would be sold at thrift shops such as Homeward Bound Treasures on Golden Street, and the story behind their creation might attract a variety of other retailers, including boutiques in New York City that specialize in the recycling of old products in innovative ways.

"We have to have the right items and find the right venue to sell it," said Parent, a retired therapist from North Stonington.

Gant said part of the difficulty in getting such a venture off the ground is finding people willing to give consistent time to the project. Working with the homeless and others facing life challenges means dealing with a fairly transient population, she said, so it is important that enough members are available to ensure continuity.

It is unclear exactly how the cooperative business will be run because it has yet to settle on a plan for how to operate. A lot depends upon who shows up regularly and what the group decides to do to divide the profits, Gant said.

Partners could, she said, get a certain amount of money for each product they make, for instance, or members might decide to just divide up the profits equally without accounting for productivity. Crafts will likely be a big part of the Reinspire equation, but volunteers said furniture restoration and other repair work also could be a mainstay of the business as well- with some of the items being sold to nonprofits working on rapidly rehousing homeless families.

"Making something out of nothing - there's something deeply satisfying about that," Gant said. "It's healing."

Matthiessen, an Ivoryton resident who started crafts sessions for the homeless on Tuesday nights, said the thought occurred to her when visiting the original shelter at St. James Church and seeing the homeless sitting around tables with nothing to do. Pretty soon, the weekly crafts night - and the bangles created - became quite popular.

"Everybody wanted one," said Carmen Rose, a resident of the Homeless Hospitality Center. "Even the guys would come up stringing the beads."

Parent said she had been leading an art therapy program when one of the attendees with mental health issues suggested making something that could actually be used.

"That was an epiphany," Parent said.

Gant said a field trip to Bridgeport with Cathy Zall, executive director of the homeless center, which included a visit to a mattress recycling factory. was important because it helped her recognize that to prevent homelessness it was critical to think creatively about job creation.

The Reinspire group first came together in March under Gant's guidance. Here and there, they have been picking up key members - including Liz Carson, considered a core member, and Gwen Fate, a Pfizer Inc. scientist who has many creative ideas for products but little time to devote to the project because of family obligations.

Earlier this month, the group sat around a table creating holiday ornaments, including an angel made out of film tubes, a chestnut and two coffee filters.

"It gives me something to do besides music," said Grace Post of New London.

Gant said she took her inspiration from Greyston Bakery, a business in Yonkers, N.Y., known for putting the hard-to-employ to work. The bakery is famed for making the brownies used in Ben & Jerry's ice cream products.

"This is mission-based work," Gant said. "We are trying to make something happen."

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow

For more information

Contact: Hannah Gant at reinspire.new.london@gmail.com or (860) 214-4053

A Reinspire open house brunch is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 24, at 18 Masonic St., New London.