For more than 120 years, Workshops Empowerment Inc. has provided employment opportunities to people with disabilities. WE Made is a program of WE Inc., providing job training in the food service and retail industries. With their line of WE Made mixes, sprays, and fire starters, participants get hands-on work experience, a steady income, and job readiness training. All products are made with the highest quality ingredients and are handmade in small batches at their workshop in Birmingham, AL.

I recently spoke with Madeline Oliff, Social Enterprise Program Manager at  Workshops Empowerment Inc. She heads the WE Made program and spends her days training program participants, marketing WE Made products at local fairs, developing new products, providing customer service for our 100+ wholesale customers, and more. 

Originally from Chicago, Madeline moved to Birmingham in 2020 for an entrepreneurship fellowship program called Venture for America. She’d felt drawn to mission-driven work prior, so leading the WE Made program gave her the opportunity to exercise her mission-driven and entrepreneurial muscles.

Below are excerpts of our conversation about WE Made.

Tell us about WE Made:

WE Made is a nonprofit social enterprise that provides jobs and job training to people with disabilities and other barriers to employment in the Birmingham Metro area. Through our workforce development program, WE Made trains participants in the food service and retail industries with both hands-on work experience alongside a curriculum around job readiness.

What do you love the most about WE Made?

I  love that it has become a symbol of all of the work we do at WE Made’s parent organization, Workshops Empowerment Inc. WE Inc.’s mission is to help people with disabilities and other barriers to employment achieve their highest vocational potential. We were founded in 1900 (you read that right!) and we have been serving the community ever since in a variety of ways. But unless you come into our workshop in Avondale (Alabama), it isn’t always visible to see how we impact our community. 

I also love the workforce development space because the work I can accomplish with program participants will last far beyond the time they walk into the doors of Workshops.WE Made is a way to tell our organization's story in an approachable way, and a way that now reaches 24 states! Each package highlights the smiling faces of the people we serve and is signed by the person that packages it, so you can feel that it’s made with love! 

I know there are three lines of WE Made products: Southern-inspired baking mixes,

all-natural sprays, and fire starters. What are YOUR favorite products?

I have the biggest sweet tooth, so it’s hard not to say the Pound Cake Mix. Otherwise, I love the Fire Starters. I think they are so festive and fun in their pinecone shapes. I can’t leave for a camping trip without them!

What do you want us to know about the people at WE Made?

It’s been amazing to watch WE Made grow so quickly in just 2 years. We are in over 115 stores in 24 states! Every single dollar we make goes right back into someone’s first pay check or first promotion, and every purchase makes a huge difference for the people we serve. So, I encourage you to shop local, small businesses and the products with a purpose that they have! 

Photo Credit: AMD Creative