Inside Sweet Beginnings

In the final episode of this series, Brenda Palms Barber reflects on the lessons she's learned over the sixteen years that Sweet Beginnings has been in business. You'll learn about the challenges she's overcome - such as trademark issues, ineffective distribution services, and not being taken seriously - and how those lessons can be applied to other social enterprises. You'll also learn what she considers to be Sweet Beginnings' great successes, and what's next for Sweet Beginnings! 

Meet Daphne Williams, the Chief Growth Officer of Sweet Beginnings. She leads our social enterprise and strategizes to grow both the business and the people we serve. In this episode, she shares how she understands beelove® as a brand and gets to know its customers, prioritizes what business goals will drive the most growth, and supports our transitional employees as they work to achieve their employment goals. 

What are the benefits of setting up your social enterprise as a subsidiary of a nonprofit? How can you balance social mission with your business priorities? Where can you find funding for recidivism reduction work? In this episode, Brenda Palms Barber shares how she set up Sweet Beginnings as a social enterprise that is sustainable for the long term. You'll learn about the give and take relationship between Sweet Beginnings and its parent nonprofit, why we decided to set up Sweet Beginnings as an LLC, and how we put the values in our triple bottom line into practice.

In this episode, you'll hear from Charlotte Austin, our lead operations assistant and a former client of both NLEN and Sweet Beginnings. Charlotte shares how she created a sweet beginning for herself when she returned home after twenty years in prison and decided she wanted to do something positive with her life. Charlotte now works with and inspires other clients coming through our program on a daily basis.  You'll learn how NLEN and Sweet Beginnings played a role in Charlotte's journey, why it's so important that we employ staff like Charlotte who have the lived experience of incarceration, and how she helps our transitional workers turn their lives around.

How does Sweet Beginnings provide a stable work experience for people with high barriers to employment? What kinds of programming and supports are most important for formerly incarcerated individuals? In this episode, Brenda Palms Barber shares how Sweet Beginnings serves our clients as a workforce development program. You'll learn about the core components of our U-Turn Permitted program, how Sweet Beginnings builds on that foundation, and how the program helps clients build confidence in their skills and restore their sense of self-worth.  From extracting honey to producing skincare products to interacting with customers at events, transitional employees participate in many different business activities during their 90 days with us, and each one is part of their journey to success in a permanent job placement.