By Edie Kasten, Irika Sargent
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — Helping people make the move from incarceration to inspiration. It’s all happening in a sweet way in North Lawndale.
The folks at Sweet Beginnings are busy as bees, producing skin care products made from honey.
Sweet Beginnings is a social impact business headquartered at the North Lawndale Employment Network.
Its staff has turned their lives around, spending their days at work after doing their time in prison. The goal is to help them achieve self-reliance and self-worth.
“What I want for people who come through our program is, first of all, to know they matter; that they have made a mistake, but they aren’t their mistake. It was a moment, it was a poor decision, but they have paid the price for that,” said president and CEO Brenda Palms.
Sweet Beginnings production specialist and trainer Charlotte Austin is at the top of her game. It’s a big win after a long journey.
“I’m thinking they ain’t going to help me, but they did. Look where I’m at today,” she said.
In December 1996, Charlotte was arrested on bank robbery charges.
“They dropped four, I pleaded guilty to five,” she said. “I got 30 years. I did 20.”
After she got out of prison, Charlotte’s sister, Elaine, told her about Sweet Beginnings. Charlotte got a spot in the training program called “U-turn Permitted.”
She remembers when she got the call.
“‘You start Monday, you’ve got to be here at 8 o’clock.’ I’m there. I was there at 7, because I was excited and it was something positive,” she said.
Her first assignment was at a small apiary, or beehive collection. Her coach, Jose Wilson, taught Charlotte about bees and much more.
“Jose taught me deal with my attitude. ‘Why you always mad? The world didn’t make you angry.’ He taught me how to talk to people,” she added. “He taught me how to deal with Charlotte.”
Sweet Beginnings has hired more than 1,000 people, helping them build new lives. It began in 2004, with the simple question: how do we get people back to work?
“After a whole host of really, really, really bad ideas, a friend of mine – actually, she served on the board at the time – and she said, ‘You know, I have a friend who’s a beekeeper,'” Brenda said.
So Brenda set out to get the buzz.
“Beekeeping is passed on through coaching. There’s a mentorship relationship there,” she said. “You can learn on the job, right? So I thought, ‘Hmm, that might work.'”
The first bees were bought with a seed grant from the Illinois Department of Corrections, and everything blossomed from there.
“We entered into Whole Foods in 2006. We’re also in Mariano’s,” Brenda said. “Our largest apiary’s actually at O’Hare Airport, which is one of the first in the country.”
Another North Lawndale Employment Network program is the beelove café, which sells locally sourced coffees, teas, pastries, and quick lunch bites.
Many of the people who work at the café live in North Lawndale, a community eager to fight misconceptions.
“People see that we have a high unemployment rate there and make the automatic assumption that, ‘Oh, those people don’t want to work,'” Brenda said. “I can assure you that is not what I have learned, that is not what I have witnessed.”
She said there are many reasons someone might not work, from medical problems to mental health issues, in addition to the stigma of a criminal record.
For Charlotte, that stigma has slowly eased, as she now helps trainees learn the art, craft, and business of bees.
“When the participants come, and I tell them, ‘Good job, you did that,’ they smile. Because they probably never hear ‘good job’ or ‘thank you,'” she said. “They need help and love. I can give it to them.”
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