Since her childhood, Amanda Richline has had a long battle with drug addiction.
"I never thought I was going to get out of that alive. Honestly I thought I was going to die an addict, I lost custody of my two daughters, I faced homelessness, I was involved in prostitution so it was honestly very dark and Ijsut didn't see any escape from that," said Richline.
She saw no way out until she heard about Unshattered.
"I used to be the person that thought people just needed to stop sticking a needle in their arm and get a job and get their life together," says Kelly Lyndgaard, founder and CEO of Unshattered.
Kelly then heard a story of addiction that changed her life, and she combined her love for handbags with her passion of helping others.
Unshattered is a boutique in Hopewell Junction that makes custom handbags out of up-cycled materials, and all of their employees are women in addiction recovery.
The shop is a non-profit, and 100 percent of the profits go back to helping women in recovery.
Each bag has what Kelly describes as "three secrets:" a gold seam that symbolizes the beauty of recovery, a personal message inside the lining of the bag from the woman who made it, and a tag naming the bag after someone.
"[It's] named in honor of somebody that we know of that is still struggling with addiction, and our customers are carrying that in the hopes that person finds hope and healing just like the women on our team have," Lyndgaard said.
Women like Richline, the group's project manager, who are secure and thriving.
"I just always thought that I needed somebody else to take care of me, and so working here has given me financial independence and also just independence in myself as a woman," Richline said.
To donate to Unshattered or to have a custom bag made, visit their website.