CanDo Enterprises

Summer is here and so is our cosmetics workshop series.

Join us on Friday the 29th of May or Saturday the 6th of June for fun and practical hand cream making workshops.

Each session will be an informative mix of scent blending and formulation, and you'll leave with your own natural hand cream with a scent of your choosing.

Love the idea but not free on these days? We've got you covered - fill out our form and we'll be in touch as we release more dates.

Links to the form and more information can be found on our website and on our story.

Meet hark.

One of our newer retailers, is a beautiful, curated shop in Dalkey where you walk in the door and just know that every product was properly considered.

You'll find all sorts of elegant yet simple products - glassware and ceramics, wooden kitchen implements, enamelware and stationary to name a few.

If you're interested in what we do and like to see people with disabilities in the workforce - support our retailers! Follow their pages or have a mooch in their shops. Consider them for gifts.

It's a lovely thing to be able to support each other.

Well! Here's an update on our bubble wrap's new home...

Peter from .ie collects all sorts of perfectly good packaging, engages with a local community employment recycling centre to sort it then sells it to conscious customers at a fraction of the price they would have to pay for it new.

These things are only "waste" if we choose for them to be. To the many fantastic people who reached out about our last post - check out Peter's website. You'll be doing good for the environment and for the people sorting it.

So nice to meet you Peter! Looking forward to linking in about our next batch of recycled goods.

🌿 Help us out! 🌿

Does anyone know any small businesses, schools or house movers who might find use for this packaging?

As a small business focused on doing good for people and the environment, we 🚫 NEVER 🚫 buy in plastic bags, bubble wrap, filler etc. Unfortunately it can be sent to us when we order in bulky goods. We reuse it as much as we can but we need to clear out.

As you'll see, we also have 378 (!!!) plastic bottles that were mistakenly sent to us when we ordered in aluminium ones, and they couldn't be returned.

Drop us a message if you'd like to take parts or all! We can definitely find people in our community who will reuse for a better planet 🌍 Thanks!

Brighter days feel like they might finally be here. Having natural soaps in your home is a small but beautiful way to feel connected to the changing of the seasons - bright florals for spring, citruses for summer and darker cedars for the autumn.

We're experimenting with stamping our soap bars - Robbie from TU Dublin Tallaght helped some of his students design stamps that are easy for our low vision staff to use. Such a lovely thing to do!

It would be a really nice design touch to have readable braille printed on our bars. Something to think about for the summer. Watch this space...

Amanda, Sophie, Jasmine, Orlaith and Gill.

At CanDo, we proudly have a female-majority team who have dedicated their work to disability advocacy and inclusion. It may be International Women's Day today, but for us the promotion of equality for all is every day of the year.

If you'd like to support our work, consider our products for ethical gifting, social procurement or just your next bar of soap.

Are you considering something sweet for Mother's Day that's good to the people who make it?

Check out our lemongrass and sweet orange gift set. With a lip balm, hand cream, two types of soap, a candle and a card, it's everything your mum (or mother figure!) deserves.

Natural ingredients, ethical ethos, in Drumcondra by people who have vision impairments.

One our website now!

What this time of year is all about...

We'd just like to say thank you to every single person who has been part of our community this year - customers, clients, advocates and friends.

We've had new retailers and markets, product changes and corporate events, festivals and new members on our team. We've also had record sales (all going to a great cause): hundreds of people across the country are going to be gifted CanDo products this day next week. In our view, that's an amazing reach for our positive message.

How did it all come together? Peace, goodwill, inclusivity, kindness and a willingness to meet people where they are. Together we embraced our differences and cared about one thing: our shared humanity.

Have a wonderful new year, everyone. Thanks for being part of this one.

Autumn is a beautiful time here. We have so many shades of green in the trees and plants around our sprawling campus.

People frequently say that they didn't know we were here - that we're a beautiful hidden space. It's probably somewhat down to our history. For many years, we were referred to "St Joseph's Asylum for the Male Blind", which clearly denotes a closed off place of a different time.

These days, we're opening up to show the wonderful spaces within our walls and the people that make our grounds special. It's a fascinating revelation of local history and social traditions, and we invite everyone around us to come and see what we do here.

Mid-move to our new lab and we're just finishing 200 gift bags for an event tomorrow. So, so busy but it's the best way to be.

We also can't wait to welcome you to our new space (quite literally, we have exciting plans to get people in for a look around...stay tuned).

If you have an event and would like to gift your guests meaningful, natural products - get in touch!

Have a great day everyone.