I’ve heard start-up entrepreneurs describe their job as trying to build an airplane while it’s in flight. Yeah, that feels about right too. Maybe airborne vehicle. Capable of crashing. It would have been nice to design and build this thing on the ground first—but that would have taken the backing of a well-funded non-profit. Or a functioning business could have shifted its mission from primarily making money to primarily training. But these two sectors [small business manufacturing and non-profit adult ed agency] don’t typically cross paths. They don’t think alike. So they don’t tend to fund big initiatives that might be outside their primary mission. Yet the only way I could imagine us being effective in our mission [to jumpstart refugees into the job market] was at their intersection. So we’re a hybrid and we’re building and we’re in flight.
Read MoreAt Beautiful Day, we are sold on the importance of refugee resettlement in Rhode Island—not as charity, but as vital to the health, growth, compassion, diversity and joy of our community. Sure, resettlement is expensive on the front end. Ultimately, as refugees get jobs and get organized and integrate and eventually start businesses, it can be a sweet deal—a black Friday kind of deal for our state. But only if they actually settle here. And unless they see opportunities to contribute economically, refugees will not want to stay in Rhode Island. This, of course, is one reason Beautiful Day exists.
Read MoreBeautiful Bar ingredients are: oats (gluten free), honey (local), cranberries (Cape Cod cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil), almonds, canola oil (org), sunflower seeds (org), coconut (org), sesame seeds (org), walnuts, pecans, dehydrated cane juice, flax seeds (org), vanilla extract, sea salt, cinnamon, almond extract, nutmeg.
Read MoreOne of my fundamental beliefs is that each person is as valuable as another. That’s a positive statement! I’m thankful for the reminder that refugees coming to Providence are no less important than Marc Chagall. Their emotions are no less deep or meaningful even if they lack the skill (or education or vision or money or English language) to communicate them to others
Read MoreAh, Valentine's Day. The holiday known to be bursting with as much romance and swooning ("ah, l'amour!") as there is cynicism and angst ("what an overrated capitalistic convention!"). Wherever you are on Valentine's Day and in whatever mood, might we step back from the hype and give a nod towards all the reasons there are to celebrate and have a little fun?
Read MoreYou don’t need to tell me that it’s a bad habit. I can’t help it: I climb in bed, half-planning to go to sleep, but then plug in my earbuds, and end up watching a Netscape movie on my iphone. This week it was Kiarostami’s Certified Copy (about as awful a title as Abbas Kiarostami is a wonderful name; and bravo to Netflicks for actually making some interesting stuff available for streaming, although who are the jerks that gave it 3.5 stars?--Juliette Binoche deserves at least that just for being Juliette Binoche). This is a little film. No crashes. No gunfights. Perfect for an iphone with earbuds in bed.
Read MoreSo here's my very own recipe for the Praline Nuts I used in (yet another) batch of Pecan Bourbon granola yesterday. (Our granola has honey, so it's not technically vegan to purists, but for the sake of shelf life, we don't use dairy. The nuts are vegan, but that word doesn't always sound great in recipes. (I wonder if there would be more vegans if someone would come up with a more appetizing word for vegan.) Let's face it, praline might be a bit better with a ton of cream and butter. This is almost more of a candied nut. We have other agendas here.)
Read MoreWe realize that many of you buy granola from us not just because you like it but because you care about what we are doing and know that it is making a positive impact on people's lives.
Read MoreEvery time you buy a bag of granola you are making an impact. Every time you stop by a farmer's market and chat with one of our employees you are extending hospitality and helping teach English. The donations, the encouragement, the tweets, the referrals, the advice, the gifts (like free table space at the Holiday Market), the access to resources (like Amos House), the Facebook mentions, the articles (and reporters who seek us out) and blog posts, big and small. We've wanted to grow and move forward in a way that keeps us connected to the people who make it possible. Talk about "watching out"! Your involvement is watching out for us.
Read MoreRefugees are among the hidden people in our communities. While the countries they come from—like Syria—make the news, they usually don't. One family I've been visiting recently arrived from Damascus. They are clearly glad to be here. They're glad to be safe. They talk about Syria as if they dodged a bullet.
Read MoreI bought a jug of Wild Turkey and we made our first Bourbon Pecan granola of the season. First we made a vegan praline using Sucanat and coconut cream, mixed in the toasted nuts, and dusted them with sea salt. We then made Wild Turkey flavored granola using the nuts and Ghirardelli chocolate. History in the making.
Read MoreWe've launched our website, which, according to the 21st century, means we actually exist.
So we hope you'll celebrate our existence by stopping in at http://beautifuldayri.org/ and learn about our efforts to mobilize refugee employment. Ultimately we hope to develop a replicable community-based model that could enable people who face incredible barriers to employment to find work.
Read MoreThe idea for this non-profit grew out of the experience Geoff Gordon and I have had creating the Providence Granola Project and assessing it’s strengths and weaknesses as a vehicle to provide first jobs and job-skills for newly arrived refugees settling in Providence. We hope to develop an efficient and effective method to help at-risk populations with significant barriers to employment find steady, meaningful jobs. While our intention is to focus on refugees, our ultimate goal is to create a model that would be transferable to other locations and at-risk demographics.
Read MoreIngredients: Oats (org), honey (pesticide-free from Aquidneckhoney), canola oil (org), granulated cane juice, coconut (org), sesame seeds (org), barley (org), almonds, cherries, apples, peaches, blueberries, nectarines, plums, pears (some fruit contains sulphur dioxide and potassium sorbate), oat bran (org), wheat germ, pecans, sunflower seeds (org), flax seeds (org), walnuts, oat fiber, sea salt, cinnamon, almond ext., vanilla, rum, nutmeg.
Read MoreJob opportunities for people who lack English, literacy, and are strangers to American culture and job market expectations are not plentiful, especially during a recession. Even with wonderful job placement and education services for newly-arrived refugees, few businesses have a vision to employ or accommodate these needs. Recognizing this gap gave Ben and Keith an idea: what if Rhode Island’s great need—job creation—could align with refugees’ needs? Then perhaps the most efficient way to make a positive difference would be to start businesses that hired refugees.
Read MoreOne of our motivating convictions is that work is far more than a paycheck, but rather a vital expression of being human, of having and using gifts. If this is true, then motivated people who desperately want to work (such as refugees) should have access to work as a basic need or right. For someone who has never worked in the US, the first step is any work; a foot in the door of the job-market. A secondary step is meaningful work, which is why we’re so interested in business incubation.
Read MoreWhile we are the tiniest of companies, we are increasingly confident that we’re pioneering an effective and efficient model for improving the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our country. And if we can figure out how to do this, we could enable other communities serving refugees to adapt or replicate our efforts. Little steps towards big goals. For our fans spread out around the country and the globe, maybe someday you’ll find refugee-made granola at your local farmer’s market.
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A GAP IN RESOURCES: One encouraging thing about Providence is the comprehensive network of services being built for refugees. This includes, among other things, job-readiness classes and job development/placement services. But the gap in these services, as I see it, is paid, on-the-job training.
Read MoreA few facts: Around 8,000 refugees have been settled in Rhode Island since 1983. Up until 2005 these came from (by population size in descending order) USSR, Liberia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hungary, Poland, Albania, former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Ethiopia/Eritrea. This is one of the great things about living in Providence. Even if you don’t have the money to travel the world, you still don’t have to live in a cocoon. The world is right here.
Read MoreCherry Chocolate: Oats (org), honey (pesticide-free, Aquidneckhoney), cherries (w/ sugar, sunflower oil), canola oil (exp pressed), granulated cane juice, coconut (org), sesame (org), barley (org), cranberries (w/ sugar, safflower oil), almonds, oat bran (org), pecans, wheat germ, sunflower seeds (org), flax seeds (org), walnuts, Ghiredelli chocolate, glazed orange peel (sulphured), oat fiber, kirsch, vanilla, cinnamon, sea salt, almond extract.
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