POVA Collaborates With Second Story Cards

POVA has partnered with Second Story Cards, a Washington, DC-based company that features the creative ideas of women and men experiencing homelessness on greeting cards. Second Story Cards founder, Reed, shares about the individual who inspired the company: “I saw him redefine himself, not by his housing status, but by his talent.”

We all want people to appreciate and value the things we contribute to the world, and we’re excited to work with Second Story Cards to expand the opportunities for our artists!

Several POVA artists are working with Second Story as cardmakers to develop greeting cards with the company. Through our partnership, the POVA artists receive 15% of their card sales and 10% of each POVA artist card is donated to Poverty and the Arts.

POVA’s first Second Story cardmaker, Ellie Kane

This first POVA artist to be represented by Second Story Cards is Ellie Kane who worked with SSC to design a Father’s Day Card and a “Social Distancing Overachiever” card. These cards are sold in retail stores in Washington DC, as well as online.

Read about Ellie’s “Social Distancing Overachiever” Greeting Card

“I’m impressed by how much some people seem to be doing during this quarantine,” comments Ellie Kane who helped create this card. “I guess you’ve got to find a way to stay sane.” Our designer incorporated a few activities that have given Ellie joy over the years. “I love to paint and there’ve been times that I was really into gardening and baking bread - I guess I get a lot of that from my father. He was a talented artist and voracious gardener. And boy could he bake bread.” 

As someone who has experienced homelessness, Ellie believes that being able to stay home is a luxury. For several years she bounced around from shelters to motels and eventually Section 8 housing. She’s open about the hardships she’s endured, “At one point, the only gift I could give someone was a loaf of fresh baked bread,” something that she surely picked up from her father. Today she lives in the home where her parents lived until they passed almost 20 years ago.