Empowering the Otherly-Abled to Grow and Contribute in the Workplace with April Ennis-Pierson

Liam Dempsey: We are excited to share plans for our 2nd in-person gathering. It’s your chance to meet and mingle with our Start Local community. As we have been talking about all summer long, folks who are subscribed to our email notifications already have these details, but we are sharing them now with our listeners. We are heading back to Stolen Sun in Exton on Wednesday, September 18th from 5 to 7 PM. Come out to connect with and get to know the wonderful people in our Start Local county. Enjoy great conversations, delicious food, and fantastic beers, cocktails, and non-alcoholic drinks. Attendance is free, but registration is required. Learn more and register on our website at [startlocal.co/gather]. That’s [startlocal.co/gather]. We’ll see you there. 

Welcome to Start Local, where we talk with business owners, leaders of nonprofits, and other members of our community focused on doing business in and around Chester County, Pennsylvania. Each episode will provide insight into the local business scene and tell you about opportunities to connect with and support businesses and nonprofits in your local area.

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Liam Dempsey: Welcome to Start Local. I’m Liam Dempsey, and I’m recording this conversation today with my cohost, Erik Gudmundson. Erik, how are you, friend?

Erik Gudmundson: I’m doing very well. How about you today, Liam?

Liam Dempsey: I am doing super awesome well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

Folks, as we have shared over the past several episodes, we’ll be gathering as a community on Wednesday, September 18th, from 5 to 7 PM at Stolen Sun in Exton.

Erik Gudmundson: That’s right. And it’s exciting to see the registrations flying in that we already have a lot of people confirmed, and I can predict, very comfortably that it will absolutely sell out. Well, not sell out because it’s a free event, and, we’re true to our principles and morals and all that fun stuff, but you know what I mean. So, do head over to our website at [startlocal.co]. Click on the register button at the top of the page and make sure you have reserved your spot to come join us.

Liam Dempsey: Today, we’re speaking with April Ennis-Pierson. April is the Executive Director of Handi-Crafters. Handi-Crafters is a Thorndale based nonprofit that provides employment opportunities and supportive services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Hello, and welcome, April.

April Ennis-Pierson: Hello, Erik. Hello, Liam. It’s wonderful to be with you today.

Erik Gudmundson: April, it’s, nice to be with you today.

Liam Dempsey: So let’s jump to questions quickly here because we’ve got a lot of stuff we wanna cover with you, April. 

Handi-Crafters provides people with various disabilities, vocational job training, socialization, and the opportunity for competitive employment. What sort of disabilities do the folks you support face? What are they dealing with? And can you talk to us about how you go about delivering programs to the benefit of those you serve?

April Ennis-Pierson: Well, thanks, Liam. You know, Handi-Crafters has been around a long time supporting this population, and we’re very passionate about the people that we serve. You know, we’re looking at individuals and their families who, maybe on the spectrum have intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, sight impaired, hearing impaired. They may, this might create a barrier to competitive employment. So that’s why after high school, Handi-Crafters would make sense as a place to come and for pre-vocational enrichment, you know, get some experience and have a goal to get a job, but they’re a good place to train, a great place to learn, a great place to learn more about life in general and have a great quality of life is Handi-Crafters. So, it seems to work for those individuals, you know, get some extra boost, another step up, but keep that focus of employment and certainly support from our great staff. And again, we can talk about it. We’ve been around a long time.

And how do we deliver the programs that benefit these individuals? It’s a model that was started in, you know, probably in the late 50’s. It was what they called a Chester Workshop Program. It just didn’t wind up here in Chester County. It was a national movement across the country to focus on quality of life and the first step in getting individuals out of their homes, helping their families give a new path to enrichment and meeting those goals of employment. 

So, 60 years ago, that’s where it started and it still is there, the option today. But, you know, again, back then it was the first step in getting towards employment and getting around people that were like them and finding out that they could be productive and enjoying a new phase of life.

So, you know, going back 60, the Handi-Crafters started in 51. So what is that? We’re like 63 years old. And that really has been our focus. And again, it wasn’t just something that started here in Chester County. It was a national movement. And we can talk more about the new philosophies today. Certainly, I know we will. But you know, that’s really what we were set out to do when we’re doing that today.

Erik Gudmundson: I always like to follow the money trail a little bit. And for an organization like yours, it doesn’t come easily necessarily. And for it to, but what really doesn’t come easy is to be sustainable, to stick around this long and be successful in your mission for this length of time. So we know that Handi-Crafters receive funding from the state of Pennsylvania. It has revenue from commercial operations, and you bring in money through fundraising. But many who are unfamiliar with Handi-Crafters, they might not understand your model because it is pretty innovative and pretty unique, never despite the fact you’ve been around for so long. So can you give us an overview of how your organization is funded?

April Ennis-Pierson: Absolutely. And it’s a continuum of services Handi-Crafters provides again to these individuals. And we do it two fold. We run a nonprofit, obviously, that’s our mission side of our house, right? We are supporting individuals in more of a rehab, that pre-vocational sense. We’re helping build skills. We’re guiding in these individuals to learn about going to work every day. So when April says, okay, we’re guiding people how to go to work every day. What does that look like? Well, we better run a business on-site. So that. And that’s where Handi-Crafters has had an operating enterprise, and married with a nonprofit for all of these years.

So what does our business enterprise look like? What we say is we’re a contract packaging business, and we’ve got really good at that over the years. So, our workforce is essentially people that are learning job skills, that are taking a lot away from coming to work at Handi-Crafters every day. They’re learning things they might have behaviors they’re working on. We have a team of support. Everybody here has a case management team. They have a workshop supervisor, our term for in-house boss. You know, they’re in different ratios throughout our model where it’s applied to learning and growing in a ratio of people on a team. So it’s like 15 to 1 in what we call a workshop. So they’re coming to work in our business, contract packaging. So we have customers that bring us work. It’s assembly work. It’s putting volumes of products together. 

You wanna know about our revenue? So, we have an operating budget of about $7,000,000. And what does that look like? We’re certainly not receiving that from the business. We’re kind of balancing both. What we, our individuals that attend here, we have about 200. We are responsible and highly regulated by the state of Pennsylvania, and our guys have enjoyed funding. They enjoy a waiver that supports their disability.

So, we actually are working as a, you know, partner with the Commonwealth actually through human services and their department of, Office of Developmental Programs. So we’re again, I said regulatory. We’re mandated to follow some compliance, and we’re able to bill for the services that we provide to those clients when they come in or there’s participants in our program when they come into Handi-Crafters. So that really does support the revenue stream. And of course, our business, we make, we do generate revenue from our business. Really, that’s to support our labor force, our workforce, and the development side of things there. 

So, you know, we are, and if there is a gap, we have a fundraising opportunity and development side of our house as well where we are sending out our fundraiser. We’re putting fundraisers together where, you know, we have donors, and we’re very fortunate to have donors.

Liam Dempsey: I’m really intrigued by this business model, and it really makes me wonder, how did you get started? I know you said it kinda grew out of a movement in the fifties. What’s the story of how Handi-Crafters was founded? Can you share that with us?

April Ennis-Pierson: Sure. It’s a great story. And I think it really deserves to be told because they’re special people that, you know, just like any nonprofit, it starts somewhere. 

There’s that special group of people to put that together. They come together. They collaborate. They’re innovation innovators. They’re visionaries. They’re passionate. And that’s just the case here. And then some of the individuals, well, few of them are gone, but I love to remember them because they’re the reason why Handi-Crafters is still here and still healthy as it is. And yes, it was a national movement. So it wasn’t something that kind of, again, struck its core here in Thorndale, Pa. It really, we stemmed out of the arc of Chester County. There was a group of parents with adult children who were doing as I mentioned earlier, they needed that next step out of their homes. They wanted them to meet their goals and dreams and see what life was about, and they wanted them to go to work.

And again, it was a movement, not just here in Chester County, but across the country. Had parents that came together, a gentleman named Mr. Zobel, Mr. Straw Snyder, and their spouses, really caring about, again, getting their guys, their loved ones out of their homes.

So knowing that this was going on across the country, why couldn’t it take shape here in Chester County? And that’s really how we got our start. We found some great opportunities with some folks that could help kind of donate some dollars. AAnd that’s how we got started, and then bought this property here in Thorndale where we are and have been today.

Erik Gudmundson: You have a rather challenging role to play in that. I hear in your answers, sometimes you’re a business, sometimes you’re a nonprofit organization, and sometimes you work with the government. And those are three very different mindsets in terms of, you know, organizational, just everything, everything within an organization. So, I know that you mentioned you work with the Pennsylvania Office of Developmental Programs, the ODP, but your programs are highly regulated and monitored by the ODP. So what’s it like running an organization that must work so closely with a state entity like that?

April Ennis-Pierson: That’s a great question. And when we were just talking about from a marketing perspective this morning in a meeting, you know, we do. And we’re very proud of the work we do. And you’re right, Erik, we cover a lot of ground. We wear a lot of hats. And we are highly regulated. So, and need to stay in compliance. You know, you’re spending essentially utilizing taxpayer dollars. So, you’ve gotta do that well and do that right. So we’re stewards of that. It’s, here’s a philosophy now, too. I mean, I’d have to be, I wouldn’t be fair if I wasn’t being honest. There’s a different philosophies and different camps out there, so we’re experiencing political, you know, views on a workshop program. But at the end of the day, we pride ourselves in the people that we serve and support. And we pride ourselves in making sure that they’re learning, they’re growing, that their goals are met. So, you know, and we do that, you know, under regulation and it’s, you know, just having well-trained staff, making sure that we do everything internally that’s required of us.

And we’re, we actually have a state visit coming up from the deputy secretary, Kristen Aarons, who is visiting us on Friday, September 6th here with her team, the leadership team from the ODP. So we welcomed that visit. We were excited to show them what we were doing because we feel like we’re doing it well. And then are we perfect? No. And we’re looking to Deputy Erin and her staff to say, Yeah, Handi-Crafters is a great workshop, program, pre-vocational program and, you know, keeping us in mind for any future model development. You know, we want to be on their radar. 

So, yeah, I mean, it’s not easy. We have 200 participants here. That’s a lot of folks to keep track of. But we have an excellent staff. Many are tenured for a long time, you know, 20, 30, 40 years even of staff that is here. They take their job very seriously. We have excellent case management and we are showing outcomes in such that we’re working with our guys. We have this thing called person-centered planning for our guys. We, in every, in leading in everyday life. That’s important to us to facilitate that in our program and help our guys make great decisions and help them meet their goals.

So, you know, we are a partner of the Commonwealth. We have business partners and keeping it all together comes down to great staff, well-trained staff, knowing what our role is, and keeping moving forward in the future for the people that we serve.

Liam Dempsey: I wanna get out into that workshop floor. We know you have 10 workshops. You shared that with me in advance of those conversations over 2 buildings out in Thorndale. And, your program and your colleagues run a full day of work throughout those workshops. Can you walk us through what a day might be like for a participant, in your programs, and how might they engage with your services and training?

April Ennis-Pierson: Let’s see. We know Commissioner Roe. Correct? You’ve probably heard of Commissioner Roe. He came last, I guess, before, he, I guess, on the campaign trail. And he wrote me a note that said, Handi-Crafters, April, I’m so happy I can’t. Handi-Crafters is like the happiest place on earth. So that meant a lot to me because someone from outside sees that. We have had lots of visitors and it’s always, always that resounding, that’s a happy place.

While we’re happy, everyone comments that we are very organized, that there’s a lot of movement\ in the work center, that there’s teams that are working hard. I had Andy Parsons from CTDI. You know, I hope I’m not saying it’s something out of turn for him, but, you know, you can just tell he enjoys coming to see the workflow. He enjoys supporting our business, but he also likes to see what’s happening on the floor. 

And we in talking about the growth that the guys get from doing work as for CTDI, if you will. But, you know, I think staff is terrific. They’re, the case management side of what we do is important. These individuals that participate in this program have built trust, and understanding. They’re empowered to grow. And I sometimes think that we’re building great confidence in these guys. And in times, is it we also know everybody’s name and we make a very big deal of that. 

And, we’re such a positive entity and we’re working on things every day, you know, from a rehab side, vocational rehab side, but from a professional side as well. But we’re also embracing that positive growth and everything matters here. And I think that’s what a day is. I mean, you can come in and they’re getting off of Chester Connect as a ride here or their mom’s bringing them staff is waving. Get, you know, we have little nicknames for everybody. Come on in. Get to work. I mean, it is just full of energy and it’s extremely positive. 

And at the end of the day, we’re meeting production deadlines. We’re getting work done for customers. And lots of times, there’s different work on the floor. We could be weighing putty, you know, £24 of putty and cutting that up and weighing it for crazy errands. Or we could be, you know, wrapping, I forget the size, but huge pieces of paper for Dumont for a project for them. And we shift gears and, you know, we’re getting the work done. And I think there’s a real camaraderie on the floor with these guys, and it’s really fun to see.

Liam Dempsey: It’s a great answer. That is such a great answer. Thanks for walking us through that. And just to clarify for those listening, when you were talking about Commissioner Roe, that’s Commissioner Eric Roe, the new Chester County Commissioner who was recently elected.

Erik Gudmundson: And I wanna stick with your answer there, April, for another moment because I’m thinking of, you know, 200 people working there in your facility at the different workshops, and you described it, or actually Eric Roe described as a. iis one of the happiest places on Earth. And, I bet a lot of organizations would be envious of your corporate culture, if you will, of how you create such a place like that. That’s just so, so exciting and so energetic. 

And thinking specifically about the individuals that you have there, I imagine that the intellectual or developmental challenges vary within that community. And assuming that you serve different members in that community with different challenges, how do you write, how do you work with those different folks? Do you have individual programs? You know, how do you make it all work and upskill them to at the end of the day, help them get the job done?

April Ennis-Pierson: Yeah. How does a gal who’s sight and, or a guy who’s sight impaired manage to meet like a crazy production deal, deadline, sorting a cable for CTDI, but they do it? You know, how does, yeah, like sorting a cable and they really can’t really see it, you know? They do this with the support of what the team, I would credit those in that case, their workshop supervisor. They have also their teammate, you know. The guys next to them, their teammates know their capabilities. Sometimes they’re quick to jump in and say, let me get you more product. I mean make sure you have that available so that you can keep working. There’s a lot of that camaraderie that happens on that team and that’s the culture. You know, they’re helping each other. They have a workshop supervisor who knows their, maybe their small weaknesses, their strengths. They’re picking out jobs that they can, every single person here can do. 

And it’s funny, you know, we would have some customer bring us a different work or different job. And you think, uh-oh, this is going to be good when this rolls out. But, you know, give us an hour,  and we are training, we are walking through it, we’re figuring out the workflow. And, you know, that next day is going to look so much different because they’re working together to get that, you know, to perfection. And it’s really neat to see. 

And that’s part of growing, you know, that it’s sometimes they might stick their foot down and say, no way. I can’t do that. But, yes, yes, actually, you can. And then we see that a lot. And isn’t it fun when you roll that out and everybody’s working in harmony and that does happen frequently? It’s kind of like this holistic approach, you know, organic approach. It kind of bubbles up and everyone seems to be able to support each other. It’s kind of cool to see.

Erik Gudmundson: I think one of the key aspects to happiness and contentment in the workforce and even employee retention is employee engagement. And the kind of teamwork you’re describing there is the ultimate level of engagement of recognizing everybody’s strengths and weaknesses and helping to come together as a team to accomplish that same goal. So, very well done on that corporate culture. Thank you.

April Ennis-Pierson: And I can’t say enough about staff too if you’d give me a second here too because, again, like, we have about 77 on our staff and I mentioned earlier, you know, there’s been some tenure here, 30 years and these are people that are here. We don’t get paid well, right? Let’s, Governor Shapiro is making some efforts to increase the budget. But for folks that work in human services, but our guys that, you know, money matters certainly, but there’s passion, there’s heart. There is you’re, you’re working here to support individuals because you really have a passion for it. And I encourage anybody who is listening to this podcast, this is a great field of work. You know, we often talk about how we want to like, build, you know, make our hearts big, and do something that we love every day.

This is a wonderful field to be able, and there’s newer and newer opportunities to get involved and support people, other people, these people that, you know, need an extra hand to get out into the community, to understand, to go to a coffee shop, to become what we call a DSP, to enrich their experiences in the community. We call them community participation support. This field is growing to be able to support people. And there’s a real, you know, you reflect back on that and you feel really good. And that person’s your friend. That’s an everyday life. You’re buddies with somebody and you want them to experience what you wanna experience. And, you know, that’s what this is all about. So, you know, taking things even in here or out in the community, this is a great field to feel really good about what you the impact you’ll make.

Liam Dempsey: April, when you talked about the founding, you shared the names of a few families that were interested in supporting their children, and their adult children getting out of the house in productive ways. We talked about how Chesco Connect or mom might be dropping off some of the participants to go to in any given day. So expect that given the challenges that your participants face, then you’re probably interacting with the families of your program participants. What does that look like? What sort of interaction and connection do you make with those families? How does that play out on a day-to-day basis?

April Ennis-Pierson: We’re very fortunate for our families, and we, you know, want to be able to listen. It’s kind of actually, it’s 2 fold too because you’re dealing with a young adult in most cases and a very caring, passionate, loving family and there’s a, you’re trying to encourage them to, hey. This is their first job. You know, trying to keep that in perspective. This is the first job. This is the first paycheck for some of these guys. Well, all of them actually at one point. And you want to let you wanna build that trust with that family. I think that’s most important.

And we’ve had a couple of new guys, the participants that have come in over the last year, and I’ve seen that a lot. Like, let it, let the, your loved one get off that bus or out of your car. They’re coming to work. And trust us when I tell you, they have a really good boss. They got a fun project to work on, and it’s gonna be a little bit of a learning and adapting and feeling good about it. But, you know, give us a little time. And that if your loved one needs something extra, maybe there’s behavior we wanna work on, we’re gonna help find the resources on that team to build that up. So, your loved one is experiencing success. 

And I think there is a, there’s a shift there. Again, it’s, I said, everyday lives and person-centered. And there’s a show called Love on the Spectrum. I don’t know if you’ve seen it or any of the listeners have seen it. I encourage you to do so. I love those parents that are giving their loved ones that everyday life. There’s a relationship that they’re connecting with. They’re going on a date. That’s the same thing here. You know, they’re going to work. They’re meeting friends. They have that cellphone. They’re getting phone numbers. They’re texting. But sometimes it is. It’s that end of school life and it’s take look at it as you’re getting your first job and we’re gonna take really good care of your guy. You know, we really are. And they’re gonna learn a lot. 

And it’s funny when there’s some been individuals many times, participants who that maybe the family thought, oh, no way. But they’ve made some real strides and come out of their shell, and they’re moving towards meeting their goals to the next great job outside of Handi-Crafters.

Erik Gudmundson: We talked a lot about the culture. We’ve talked a lot about the emotion behind everything and some of the spirit behind your mission there. But I wanna get into the nuts and bolts a little bit. And, Liam, I think is gonna ask a question here in a little bit about, you know, some of the products that you actually manufacture there and some of the services that you provide. But first, I wanna talk about the people there. We know that the state of Pennsylvania, and even the federal government have really emphasized an employment first approach to the services that you offer, and you provide them as a 14(c) license holder. So is that approach suitable for all your program participants? And I wanna go even further, in a more basic way and ask, would you please explain what a 14(c) license holder is?

April Ennis-Pierson: 14(c), sure. Let’s start with that. The 14(c) license we’ve had for 60 years. I mean, that affords us really in the most broad term, the ability to pay a subminimum wage, and what we utilize our 14(c) license as the vehicle as a training wage. You know, they’re putting things together. It is hand assembly through our contract packaging business. And they’re getting paid by the piece. They are not making that is not making minimum wage. And I think that is definitely something that’s come under fire over the last decade, because it’s, shouldn’t everyone, you want them to have an everyday life? Doesn’t that equate to an everyday wage? I again, this is really a first. It’s meant to be under the license. It is meant to help them walk through vocational experiences and growth to build confidence, to move forward, to take that leap into competitive employment. It’s called pre-vocation. You know, it’s here for that purpose. So it’s really not to be here for a lifetime, although that happens. And that moves into the second conversation is, it is choice. It is something that we mentioned and we’ve done that more than we ever have in the past. This is a subminimum wage and it’s a training wage. And we are required by law to tell our participants that this is their choice. This is what they’re coming into as their paycheck, and that they’re very aware of that. And again, it’s really the stepping stone to get into competitive employment. 

I don’t want to miss the first part of your question. I went over 14(c). So, again, there are guys participating here too. That’s the first paycheck. And that means a lot to them no matter how many zeros are on it. Honestly, it’s a paycheck that they earned that they’re now seeing the value in. So, it’s a great first step. And, are we talking about, okay, what does our model look like paying minimum wage? Yes, we are. We, you know, we want to be able to change our model if that’s the philosophy across the nation, but we don’t want to leave anybody out with that either. And there would be some, you know, some balance there that we’d have to really push hard to meet if we were going to lose that opportunity to train, to educate, to build those skills, but pay minimum wage. 

So, we, you know, it’s not that Handi-Crafters is ever not considering what that bigger picture looks like. This is how this model has worked. This is a choice by these individuals. It is a job. They can come 5 days a week. And that’s very important to them to have that time here, you know, 6 hours a day, quality time on their team, with their friends. That has a lot to, there’s a lot to be said for that. You know, they might, their job may be extremely part-time, but have a minimum wage. This is, they’re here on, you know, can be here up to 5 days a week.

So I hope I answered that. If there was a second part, let me know, re ask me, Erik.

Erik Gudmundson: No. That was perfect, April, because that it really just helps me understand the supply side, if you will, from a workforce standpoint. And now let me turn over to Liam who’s gonna ask about your output. 

April Ennis-Pierson: Okay.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah. Thanks, Erik. So, April, we can peruse the Handi-Crafters website, and we see that you have business partnerships with some pretty significant, pretty big local companies like Herr’s, CTDI, which you’ve already mentioned, Victory Brewing, and more. You mentioned Crazy Aaron’s when we met before today, you shared that Handi-Crafters has that contract packaging service where your program participants provide hand assembly work, and you’ve described some of that, in this conversation. But I wonder if you could give us some specifics about what are you actually doing for Herr’? What are you doing for CTDI? What are you doing for Victory? What are those hand packaging services look like, and what kind of volume? Because when you shared it with me the other day, I was really blown away by the volume that your program participants at Handi-Crafters turns out.

April Ennis-Pierson: Yeah. We are putting a, we were… one of our significant volume number is Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty. You know, we’re at a point where we could put out, let’s say, 24,000 tins of putty a week. That’s huge. You know, we’re weighing that. We’re cutting that. We’re weighing that down. We’re putting it in the really fabulous tin of putty that Crazy Aaron’s, you know, uses, as his, you know, for his retail.

And we’re sealing it and… and I think I said labeling it and we’re doing, you know, start to finish, and putting out the more around 24,000 tins of putty a week. So, and he’s been a fantastic customer of ours since I think 2012. And we know that that’s a staple customer. He’s bringing that product in here to, again, we have guys in a couple of shops. They’re weighing, they’re cutting it, they’re weighing it, they’re putting it in the tin, they’re putting the labels on it, they’re sending it through a heat tunnel and packaging it and then sending it back to our, to Crazy Aaron’s for retail shelves. So, that gives you an idea of kind of the volumes we can do, and the level the different variety of work that we accomplish.

For Herr’s, we love Herr’s. They’ve been with us for over 10 years. A couple of times a month, we’ll get product from Herr’s that is, where we need to take the cases and break them down into variety packs. So, we’ll get a bunch of different types of cases of chips from Herr’s that we put into a variety of pack for them and then send them back. And like I said, they’re in here. They’re in here today. They’re in here a couple of times a month. 

Victory is the same thing. They may have you, may see a variety of pack of Victory Brews, Summer Ale, you know, those delicious flavors. We’re breaking them down from the cases from Victory and we’re putting into the variety pack. We’re doing about $100,000 in business contracts for the month.

Erik Gudmundson: That’s significant. It’s much more than a novelty or a token amount. That’s some real work output that Handi-Crafters is generating.

April Ennis-Pierson: Mhmm.

Erik Gudmundson: To think about it from one of the perspective of one of your customers, when a customer contacts you and they want to purchase some hand assembly services, do you think they choose Handi-Crafters as a service provider because you’re the best value for their money, or is there an element of altruism there as well on behalf of your business partners? What’s driving them to you as opposed to, you know, running a manufacturing facility themselves?

April Ennis-Pierson: I think we’re very competitive in our pricing and what we bid out for that contract. But I would be, it is definitely a mission. The mission side of what we do is extremely important to the customer. You know, I can, I, again, I go back to our friends at CTDI, our partners. They are, they’ve been with us a long time. And I know one of the, you know, certainly the business is offloading something that they need to utilize their internal staff for something else. You know, that frees up that workforce on their end internally. But what’s pushing that? I mean, they certainly could accomplish that on their end, but what’s pushing it is that they are, it’s important for them to see that Handi-Crafters always has work. That they know that our mission is so well, that they make sure that Handi-Crafters, any workshop is not going to go without work.

And very rarely does that happen. But we have a great production team. We, those customers really do see us as and that’s a pitch of ours. You know, we’re gonna tell them that this workforce needs that work. And the variety is even better. That diversity on the floor is really fun right now because I talked about weighing putty. I talked about packaging and sending stuff through a tunnel. I talk about cords that are for Comcast or Verizon and making a box and putting some components in there.

This is all different types of work that people can, you know our guys can learn different parts of that job. We’re doing a job for Stickler Candy. I think they’re up in Redding. And, you know, that’s like a big dum dum lollipop. And we’re putting the pops in there. We’re putting the, we’re building this big lollipop with a little stick. You know, it’s pretty cool. You’re gonna see it in 5 Below, I guess.

And our guys feel like when they see that, they did that. They had a part of that. You know, they feel like they’re an extension of that product, that brand. But I really do for us, that’s important and they see those Herr’s chips and they say, I work on Herr’s at Handi-Crafters. They see the crazy Aaron’s out in a store and they identify with it. We do that at Handi-Crafters. So, that’s really huge for our side, of our side of it. 

But look at that customer who looked at us and knew that we needed that work and they helped us along. And I really think that’s the bigger part than what comes down to the contract price, you know? And I think we free up some huge volumes on a floor in a business that, you know, it gives that staff something else to do, that business to grow in other ways because they offloaded that to us.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah. The pride that your participants feel when they see those program, those products, ‘out in the wild’, that really resonated with me as a marketing and design consultant, seeing my designs or campaigns I worked on or led ‘out in the wild’ doing things, engaging with people, garnering interest in revenue for the clients is super, super exciting. So, I think that’s just wonderful. Thank you for walking us through that.

Handi-Crafters has been around for, I think you said, 63 years. That’s a long time in Chester County. I’m sure, you and your colleagues and maybe those in your position who have come before you have seen a lot of businesses and nonprofits doing a lot of good things. And I wonder if you can tell us about a business or a nonprofit that you think more people should know about.

April Ennis-Pierson: That’s a hard question.

Liam Dempsey: Yes.

April Ennis-Pierson: I think. and then if you even said not just Chester County, I mean, we’re, you’re, this is a podcast. I mean, yeah.

Liam Dempsey: I’ll limit it to Chester County. I’ll limit it to Chester County.

April Ennis-Pierson: You can. And you know what? I can’t really say. I think we’re all working so passionately and so hard for, you know, to support our communities whatever they are, you know, food banks, senior centers.

Here at Handi-Crafters, you know, supporting into, you know, school kids, school age children and making and families. Hey, so much is going on. It’s so good. I think the best thing to do is, you know, figure out where you, what you love as a person. You know, like, I look at that, like, what do I love? What makes a difference? What do I wanna help change? And go in because then we all need your help. We need your dollars, we need your volunteering. You know, we would, all these nonprofits are really good and they all are making a difference.

And it’s like, and know that, you know, we could use your help in any way, shape or form. Get involved. Be on the board. You know, get, be, if you have deep passion, spend some time and support the nonprofits in your community. I could never name any that stick out. They all are amazing. And I look at them and meet executive directors and CEOs and I just think, wow, you’re being innovative. You’re connecting. Let’s, you know, I love that you have a vision and we’re all doing something really important and really good. And I encourage everybody to look at that and get involved.

Erik Gudmundson:, If someone’s listening to this podcast and they’re interested in getting more involved personally, perhaps by coming to work at Handi-Crafters, are you currently hiring? And I’d like you to answer that both with respect to folks interested in full-time employment in a traditional way, as well as folks who might fall under the 14(c) waivers.

April Ennis-Pierson: We are definitely looking for referrals. I mean, we have openings here for, to support participants who and can go to our website, and you can look up Handi-Crafters, [hcoccenter.org]. And you can, there’s a form that you can fill out to get it, to get that start, that process.

And you know, we’re always looking to bring in and support individuals in their journeys. And then if in there, I know that, you know, from another side of it, which I haven’t talked too much about, but there are people that are, have what we call supports coordination. So don’t forget that Handi-Crafters is here and we do job coaching services. So if there’s, if they have a consumer that needs support in a job or finding employment, we have, we take referrals for that too. We work very closely with OVR.

So, yes, indeed. We have, our services are, you know, we can support new participants. Head to the website, check us out, and give us a call. 

And then hiring. We are looking currently for 1 on 1 support. That’s a kind of an entry-level job. We have what we call an adult daily living center, also on campus. And we have about 50, we’re licensed for 55 individuals in that program. And that’s more of a day center. So it provides fun activities for and keeps individuals, you know, engaged in maybe art and pet therapy and music and fun with the staff. So that’s a program that really needs support and 1 on 1 support. There’s, you know, activities aids, we all, we call them and, you know, we welcome resumes for that. We all are from time to time looking for part-time support on our floor. So, we’re, you know, send a resume, stop in, fill-out an application. A great place to start.

Erik Gudmundson: You referenced OVR, that’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, right?

April Ennis-Pierson: Correct. Correct. And that’s like, that is the stepping stone to evaluating next steps after school, you know, to support the first employment, hearing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And there may be a recommendation after going through OVR that individuals just getting out of high school would want to seek out pre-vocational services, which is where Handi-Crafters would come in.

Erik Gudmundson: Got it. Thank you.

April Ennis-Pierson: Mhmm.

Liam Dempsey: April, before we wrap up our conversation today, I want to ask you how the community can give back to Handi-Crafters? You reference a few ways about volunteering and getting involved, But I wonder if there’s other things or maybe more specific examples of the kind of volunteering or the kind of support maybe above and beyond donations that you’re thinking about.

April Ennis-Pierson: Sure. Well, we always love those big major gifts, so that’s always one. That’s a shameless, plea. But, hey, I was in development before I became the Executive Director. 

Honestly, you know, a great way, I mentioned volunteering and we have a great opportunity to volunteer here. I was involved with Chester County Hospital before I returned to, we returned to Handi-Crafters when they had a wonderful volunteer program at Chester County Hospital of Penn Medicine. It’s the same thing here. If you’re looking to get involved, we can volunteers are wonderful. You get on the floor, you talk to people, you help us meet production deadlines. That’s a great place. 

If you’re thinking, what can I do with my day? I’m maybe retired. I don’t want to be, you know, I’ve got, you know, here, I want to volunteer. This is great. I would recommend coming over and jumping in and who knows where that goes? We’ve had volunteers that have become workshop supervisors, you know, from just wanting to explore what this field was like, and they became amazing workshop supervisors.

So, you know, certainly an opportunity from volunteering, supporting our events. We need, there’s, you know, committee work that we county utilize. We have a huge golf tournament coming up. The 38th Annual Hankin Invitational sets a tease-off at Woodford Country Club on October 7th. We’ve been doing that tournament for over a decade. I think this will be our 11th year. And that tournament has raised $2,200,000 for Handi-Crafters. The incredible, incredible friends of ours have done so much to support our mission and were extremely greatful to Marco Heineken, Bob Heineken Group. So, jump in and play golf, look into sponsorship opportunities for our events. We could, those type of things really go a long way for to help us stay very grounded and supported.

Erik Gudmundson: April Ennis-Pierson, Executive Director of Handi-Crafters. Aside from maybe meeting up with you at Stolen Sun on September 18th or coming out to the golf tournament, where can listeners connect with you to learn more about your team’s great work?

April Ennis-Pierson: I think I mentioned our website, [hcocenter.org]. We’re on Facebook at Handi-Crafters. I think it’s under hcoccenter as well on Facebook. And we’re on LinkedIn as well. So, check us out, like us, share our content. There’s some really cool videos on there. The happiest place on earth at Handi-Crafters. You’ll see us and certainly come by. Hey, give me a shout. Send me an email. Call us and we’ll hook up and you can come and take a tour, and we, I promise you, I will entice you to work here, volunteer, or come to work. It’ll be a lot of fun.

Liam Dempsey: April, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate the gift of your presence.

April Ennis-Pierson: I really appreciate this. It’s an honor to be on with both of you. Thank you.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, thank you both. I am Erik Gudmundson. 

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