From Hive to Home
Creating a Sweet Urban Legend That's Changing Lives
When you have your first beeline® experience, its likely that your senses will transport you to a quaint village in Italy where for centuries beekeepers have been harvesting honey for the production of some of the most expensive and best known brands of personal care products used by some of the world's most discerning people. Perhaps it's the clean feeling smoothness of your skin after you've used beeline® honey and brown sugar body polisher and exfoliator; or it could be the way that beeline® body cream leaves you feeling and smelling so sensuous; or maybe its the incredible softness that replaced the rough spots on your hands and feet after using beeline® hand and foot butter balm; and for sure, it is the kissable lips that you will love as a result of using beeline® lip balm. Regardless of which product you use, your skin and your senses will thank you for the experience. But wait a minute, there is just one thing we need to clear up. Your senses are not deceiving you, they just will have carried you to the wrong location.
beeline® brings you this quality experience by way of Chicago. Ours is a modern day urban American story. Come with us to North Lawndale, an economically challenged community where 42% of the families are living in poverty. A community plagued with escalating school dropout rates, high unemployment rates (26% compared to only 8% citywide), and a high incidence of incarceration; but its also a community where hope is abundant, and where bees are leading a line towards optimism and helping revitalize a community.
Each year, the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN), owner of Sweet Beginnings, LLC admits about 200 people who have gotten in trouble with the law, into their jobs training program, U-Turn Permitted. They offer traditional job skills training like resume writing and interviewing skills, along with specialized classes in anger management, cultural adjustment coaching, conflict resolution training and how to work in teams. NLEN, however, recognized that participants with little previous work history or other issues to overcome, needed a more extensive training program to better prepare them for the workforce. They need an opportunity to work and develop the skills that will allow them to be successful in the job market. They need a stepping stone to help bridge the gap between jail and job readiness. It is this need that has given birth to Sweet Beginnings, LLC.
At Sweet Beginnings, LLC transitional employees (program participants) have an opportunity to learn various job skills holding positions from bookkeeping to beekeeping, production planning and packaging to customer service and sales; materials handling to shipping and receiving. Its not easy operating an urban apiary, and managing production, sales, and marketing. Our goal is to provide graduates of this program with solid, real world, work habits and marketable job skills. Through the support of many, we provide them an opportunity to make a competitive salary and enable them to become a contributing member of their community and to society.
Importantly, our graduates learn the discipline required to produce and sell high quality products. beeline® products are produced with the care that comes with having been given a new chance to succeed in life. While the bees do most of the work, Sweet Beginnings, LLC's transitional employees have the awesome responsibility of taking care of the bees and the hives.
Urban bees are said to make a tastier honey than their country cousins because there is a greater abundance and variety of nector sources in the city and they travel shorter distances for it. Our bees have plenty of white clover and aster which gives our honey its unique flavor. Beekeeping is hard work, and contrary to popular belief, it is a year long process. Each hive produces about 75 to 100 pounds of honey, but our urban hives are also producing life altering experiences. Of the seventeen past offenders who have participated in the Sweet Beginnings, LLC training program since 2004, none have returned to prison.
Sweet Beginnings, LLC is producing excellent quality honey in an urban environment. We are trying to change the story for a community in need of help, and the lives of peolple who are deserving of a second chance. With your support, we will create a sweet urban legend of success.
Bee Beautiful, Be Sweet, Buy Beeline®
