Among the region”™s nonprofits, Team Woofgang & Co. has one of the most distinctive missions. This organization helps young people with disabilities achieve vocational skills through the creation of high-quality, peanut butter dog treats and handcrafted pet items, which are sold through a retail store in Fairfield and via the nonprofit”™s website.
Last month, Amiee Turner joined Team Woofgang & Co. as executive director. Turner was previously the executive administrator at RealFi, a residential home funding fintech, and previously served for 10 years as the executive director of the not-for-profit Ocean State Theatre Company Inc. of Rhode Island.
In this edition of Suite Talk, Business Journal Senior Enterprise Editor Phil Hall spoke with Turner about her new position at her office in the nonprofit”™s new production facility, based within the Fairfield Avenue commercial district of Bridgeport”™s Black Rock neighborhood.
What was it about Team Woofgang & Co. that attracted you to this position?
“I will say it”™s the people. This opportunity came to my attention through a board member and then I met with two of the co-founders, as well as several of the other board members. I was impressed with the quality of the people that have been doing this for the last four years: It”™s a lot of really smart, thoughtful folks and that kind of made it a pretty easy decision. In a way, it”™s a dream job.”
You were doing diverse work prior to coming to this organization. Is there a connection between your work in the entertainment and real estate fields and this endeavor?
“I think there”™s a connection between everything. I absolutely have a very eclectic background, but the through”“line for me is in storytelling ”” I love to tell a good story, and I”™m really excited because this is a good story to tell and we”™re ready to tell it.”
How do you recruit people to be part of this experience?
“We work regularly with TransitionCT, which is an organization that facilitates programs for adults with disabilities. What I”™ve learned in this state is that there is amazing programming through the school system for those up to the age of 18 and then there”™s some transitional programming for those who are 18 to 21 ”” and then there”™s really nothing left for them. So, a lot of it is word of mouth.
“Now that we”™re coming out of Covid, I”™m really anxious to start a pipeline of getting folks back in here by exposing the public to understand what we do, in order to create a pipeline of team members that can come in.”
How did Covid impact this organization?
“Very significantly. The most obvious is that the Bigelow Center, which we were using for product assembly, was shut down ”” and the opportunity for our team members to be socially engaged, to be working on a team and to be manufacturing these products and selling them just got shut down. We had done curbside pickup at the retail store, but that socialization aspect was completely stopped.
“Fortunately, many families baked these dog treats from their homes. And our program manager that is in charge of our bakery here would run around dropping off ingredients and picking up products. God bless all of those parents ”” their houses smelled like peanut butter. And anybody who has a dog, forget about it ”” they”™ve gone crazy this year.
“And one of the fun things that we did was having Zoom meetings with the team members in lieu of them getting together. It ended up we were doing three Zoom meetings a week and they became great at Zoom meetings ”” we had words of the day, played games, did exercises over Zoom; and it really became a way to keep everybody engaged.
“Now, I think that everybody is excited not just to have this beautiful brand-new space, but that we can all come together and feel like a team again.”
What goes into making the perfect peanut butter treat for a dog?
“We hired a nutritionist to figure that out, but the basic ingredients are oat flour, peanut butter powder and vitamin C. There”™s a couple of other tricks up our sleeves, too, but there are no preservatives. And everything is locally sourced. We have production at this point that is pretty much just keeping up with demand.”
When did you open your new Fairfield Avenue location in Black Rock?
“This is our very first week ”” our first shift was on Monday (March 29). There are some team members that still aren”™t quite comfortable coming back, so we made it optional.
“We”™ll onboard another set in June and then I anticipate in September will be our next onboarding opportunity. And there will be a lot more coming.”
Do you help people move on from here to get full-time employment elsewhere?
“One of the many duties that I have been tasked with in coming on board is really kind of figuring out what is the next step. The first step was figuring out a way to help, educate, vocationally train and provide lifelong learning opportunities for these adults with disabilities that are sort of moving out of the support system that currently exists.
“The goal is that if these individuals can take this training and move on to a paid position, that would be what we want. We have five team members that work at Stew Leonard”™s, at Home Depot and at Fairfield University. But for some, it”™s really going to be a lifelong learning experience for them ”” we all train at a different speed and level. But because we individualize the training programs, that”™s the challenge that we have.”
