Purple Door Coffee: A New Belay Enterprises Faith Venture to Employ Homeless Youth

-
I am excited to announce that the Belay Enterprises Board of Directors approved the addition of Purple Door Coffee to our portfolio of incubating faith venture businesses. Spearheaded by Madison Chandler in partnership with local homeless ministry Dry Bones, this new venture will raise start-up funding to create a local coffee shop to employ homeless young adults leaving the street life.

I've written before about Seattle's Street Beans Espresso. It's our hope that Purple Door will mirror that organization's successful approach working with homeless youth in the Northwest.

And continuing the coffee theme, the Belay Board also approved continuing exploring a partnership with Chicago areas faith venture I Have A Bean Coffee to open a Denver area micro-roastery to employ ex-offenders.

If you're interested in helping us develop these two entities or just want to learn more, please feel free to contact us at 303-296-3990.

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

For a long time there has been a hole in international development and business as mission in the area of sales training.

-
I was excited to be introduced to the Whitten & Roy Partnership recently over lunch by one of its consultants. There are so many great organizations implementing ideas in the developing world that are not realizing their full marketing potential because of a lack of training in sales tactics or a sub-par sales plan. I've had many long conversations with a sales professional friend discussing the need for high-quality help in this area. A well thought out sales approach in developing communities can even be a force for bringing about systematic change in disadvantaged communities: This company is redefining sales tactics for the base of the pyramid SAN FRANCISCO — Scott Roy, co-founder of an international sales consultancy, was doing research for a potential client in Cambodia when he heard about a sales tactic he found appalling. A team tasked with selling toilets to families would roll into villages with a set of latrine components. In order to close th
Read more