Belay Enterprises Update: A Summer of Exploring New Opportunities for Employing Individuals Rebuilding Lives

-
There has been a lot going on around Belay Enterprises this summer. The most exciting happening is the successful launch of New Beginnings Custom Woodworks, our custom cabinet employment and job training program for ex-offenders. I'm pleased to report that everything is up and running with sales far beyond our initial projections. Our director Dave Schuett is doing an awesome job. We're hoping to expand training opportunities for ex-offenders very soon as we secure additional warehouse space for the project. Indeed, our biggest challenge around Belay right now revolves around limited warehouse square footage.

Besides the cabinet project, we are continuing to develop some interesting Ascent Faith Venture Fund projects which could really help us towards our 5 year goal of 750 jobs a year as they are implemented:
  • We plan to present an initial culinary program business plan to the Denver Jail in August. The Sheriff's Department is super enthusiastic about the potential of this project. The big challenge is figuring out the product line we will build our business around and determining its sustainability.
  • Madison Chandler is finalizing her business plan for a coffee shop to employ homeless youth leaving the streets in the Dry Bones program and has started raising money.
  • We are finishing a business plan for a coffee roasting business for ex-offenders in partnership with I Have a Bean Coffee in the Chicago area.
  • In addition, we are exploring partnering to create a for-profit shed building and job training business to employ ex-offenders, assisting an individual developing a metal sign business that could employ homeless youth, working with another organization to produce structural framing for exporting, and assisting an expanding medical coding business to develop a program to hire ex-offenders from Belay.

So, as you can see, everyone at Belay has been very busy.

But one thing I am reminded of is that we can not do all of these projects on our own. It's not physically possible for Belay to run all of these businesses. We need to continue building a program that assists entrepreneurs to do what they do best while accomplishing our mission statement of creating businesses that employ individuals rebuilding lives. We must partner Christian business people with the above opportunities to provide technical assistance to maximize the natural momentum of the individual entrepreneur pursuing their business goals.

And we must continue to seek out God's wisdom and guidance because "unless the Lord build the house, its builders labor in vain." Psalm 127:1 NIV.

I look forward to an exciting end of the summer as we continue to work on these projects.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Accidental Janitorial Company: Freedom Cleaning Services

-
Sometimes opportunity finds you. In 2003, Cherry Hills Community Church called Baby Bud's Director Dianne Sager with a question. The recovery organization that had been cleaning their facility had just closed and Cherry Hills needed a new partner. Would Baby Bud's be interested in cleaning the school at Cherry Hills? Normally a retail baby store would think twice about committing to a job completely unrelated to its core business. But Dianne had 20 years of experience managing a janitorial company prior to Baby Buds. She saw this as a new opportunity to employ more single moms. Within a couple of weeks, Baby Bud's added five single moms for a cleaning crew and Freedom Cleaning Services was born. Within a year, the business had grown to employ ten women with several other churches and commercial businesses as clients. One of the challenges to any business start-up is maintaining the focus on your core business when other opportunities arise. Sometimes it's good to pur
Read more

Catherine Rohr's Excellent Argument for Hiring Ex-Offenders

-
I was excited to see Catherine Rohr's essay "Why You Should Hire Ex-Cons" in Inc today. She makes a wonderful case that I hope many employers will read. I've long hoped the case for ex-offender employment would start getting a wider audience. As I've written before, employers need not fear hiring ex-offenders. They provide a excellent source of dedicated workers desiring to move beyond the mistakes of their past. And while you are at it, check out the great work Rohr's organization Defy Ventures is  doing in NYC. Many business owners have overlooked a great source of untapped talent: former inmates. Many former drug dealers and gang leaders have skills and attributes you value most in employees, including charisma, resourcefulness, resilience, a willingness to take calculated risks, and strong management skills.  " Why You Should Hire Ex-Cons ," Catherine Rohr in Inc , June 25, 2012 Read rest of the story here .  
Read more

Good Soil Industries: A Southern California Urban Business as Mission

-
(Updated 7-6-11) I had the good fortune to attend the Christian Community Development Association’s annual convention this past month in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of my favorite experiences at the event was spending a lunch with Ryan VerWys of Kingdom Causes in Bellflower, California. He leads an innovative community development organization that has incubated a promising landscaping business as mission called Good Soil Industries . This project is a true faith venture that seeks to employ homeless and economically disadvantaged people in a self-sufficiency discipleship and job-training program. If you are a business owner or property manager in the Bellflower area, you should consider helping individuals rebuild lives by contracting Good Soil Industries for your landscape maintenance needs. For more information, call Joel Holwerda at 562-688-5010 or Taylor Seger at 562-502-7716. I also enjoyed brainstorming with Ryan about future faith venture projects. One exciting project has
Read more