More Than Words: beyond a traditional bookstore experience

Almost 20 years ago, Jodi Rosenbaum founded the non-profit business More Than Words (MTW) in Waltham, MA to be a book and clothing store. She founded it intending to empower youth to take charge in their lives and MTW does this by giving the youth different jobs that contribute to the business in some way. These jobs include working on the trucks, in the retail space, or the warehouse. I’ve donated books to MTW before but I didn’t know how it worked and was very curious. So, I sat down with Jessica Carling who is the VISTA volunteer coordinator of MTW to talk about how the business runs and how it stays a business while also helping young adults. 

I wanted to know how MTW began and Carling explained to me that it was a “basement to success story” in which Rosenbaum and a few young men came up with the idea for the business. This led to the business’s mission which they state on their website, “…every dollar goes back into our program to empower youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.” As the years went by more people started to hear about the business and what they were trying to do and more funding came in so now they have two locations: one in the South End of Boston and one in Waltham. 

The first thing I learned from Carling was what her job, as a VISTA volunteer coordinator, was. “VISTA is just a different branch of AmeriCorps…As the volunteer coordinator my entire job is to focus on our volunteers and our group volunteers and finding new ways to leverage their talents to help support our young adults.” Since Carling wasn’t a young adult at MTW we began to discuss what her experience as an adult was like at the business. She explained that since starting at MTW in February of 2022 her role has changed a lot. She mainly works with volunteers that come in to help with business operations or in the youth development area. These volunteers can either work alongside the young adults to model professionalism or support young adults as they achieve their personal goals. But she also works with individual donors and does offsite speaking engagements in which she usually brings a young adult with her for them to gain experience with public speaking.

I discovered MTW from me and my mom donating books ourselves. At the time I didn’t think much of it but as we kept donating I started to wonder how the business runs. I figured that there must be some workers who look through the books while others work to sell the books but Carling explained to me it was much more than that, “Our program is centered completely on our young adults who are at the very center of everything that we do.” And then went on to explain to me all of the different jobs the young adults working there can have which include: working online operations, in the warehouse, in the retail space, or on the trucks.

 She also explained to me that a very important part of MTW is the check-in and check-out process that they do for young adults every day. Essentially, the check-in is what the young adult’s goals are for the day. MTW calls this their KPI or key performance indicator. This gives the young adults an idea of what they need to accomplish during their shifts. Then, for the check-out, they bring everyone together to see what goals were hit that day. She shared with me that something very unique to MTW is that the check-out process allows everyone to share something good about the shift and something that could be improved. If a young adult didn’t finish their goal for the day they plan how they’ll meet their goals next time.

Carling also told me that the impacts MTW has had on both the young adults and the older adults in the business. Even though the main focus is the young adults and their achievements, working with them gives the older adults “joy” and is “inspiring”. I also learned about the amazing successes of the young adults who have graduated from the program who have gone on to technical trade programs and who have come back to MTW years later to share that they are doing well and taking care of themselves. A testament to the MTW community, here are some young adults who have been there since the very beginning and they still keep in contact with and support. And they will continue to do that till the young adult no longer needs them. 

As we were wrapping up, Carling shared with me what MTW is doing soon to expand its business. They have just finished construction on a book truck which will make its debut this summer. There is also a possibility that they might eventually open a separate location that is just for their donated clothing. But, for right now MTW will continue to sell both books and clothing at their two store locations in Boston and Waltham, MA while supporting the young adults who work there.