Sweet Beginnings: How Work Can Work by Jim Wallis

Published: August 14, 2007, 12:53 pm

Last week I received an interesting package in the mail from Sweet Beginnings LLC, a Chicago-based neighborhood non-profit "committed to training and employing residents who are often locked out of the traditional labor market due to past criminal records and other barriers to employment." Opening the large cardboard box, I discovered two of their signature "beeline" products: homemade beeswax body cream and lip balm. I met Brenda Palms Barber, the CEO of this remarkable organization, at the Aspen Ideas Festival last month. The Sweet Beginnings story is one worth sharing an example of success against some pretty incredible odds. North Lawndale, a neighborhood on Chicago's west side (where the organization is based), has seen its share of challenging circumstances in decades past. With six in 10 residents having been in trouble with the law and one in four currently unemployed, the community faces some of the most troubling realities confronting urban America. Experiencing an

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