A'fair shot at a second chance:How Fairhaven Lawn Care, a social enterprise business, turns the homeless into skilled, productiveemployees

摘要

In 2008, Fairhaven Lawn Care began operating in central I Ohio with a modest goal to serve about a dozen custom-I ers. Today, the company provides landscape maintenance I services to approximately 45 customers. But Fairhaven isn't your typical landscape success story. Based in Lancaster, Ohio, about 30 miles southeast of Columbus, Fairhaven is a social enterprise business launched by Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio to help its homeless clients.The company currently employs a crew of five workers from the agency's shelter. Fairhaven is the brainchild of Eddie Rapp, director of the company and Lutheran Social Services. Rapp decided that instead of using outside contractors to manage landscapingservices for Lutheran Social Services' properties, he would hire clients to do the work.