slhl ARTIST
BUILDING FURNITURE
AND FUTURES Anew Nature founder Robert Karleskint designs modern furniture and teaches ex-cons trade skills.
By Tyler Bierman
Photography by Colin Miller/Strauss Peyton
ong before Robert Karleskint ran his own business, he was just a young man with a masonry background, a desire to help out in his community and an admittedly limited perspective on cultural differences. He volunteered with the local non-profit Mission: St. Louis for fi e years teaching people to do home repair on underprivileged families' homes. Karleskint did that until the opportunities in that area dried up, but he found a way to continue doing what he loved with a bit of a twist. That's when Karleskint founded Anew Nature, a for-profit furniture company with the mission to get felons back into the workforce by teaching them high-demand trade skills. Why be a for-profit company? As Karleskint puts it, “Many of my friends either work with non-profits
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or own them, and I can imagine there being a temptation to push a lot of guys through to be eligible for a grant and that's not something I want to do. I would literally rather have one guy go through my program in a year and get a job than do that and waste their time.“ However, the real question to ask is why and how they work with these interns? The “why” is simply because it's needed, not just for the young men and women that are trying to get their careers started, but also for the local construction industry that always needs more quality employees. The “how” is a little more complicated, but can be wrapped in a bow with their RISE collection. This collection is full of modern designs and was specifically developed with trade skills in mind. In fact, Karleskint went directly to construction and trade companies to find out exactly
SEPTEMBER 2017 STLOUISHOMESMAG.COM
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8/10/17 12:33 PM