Employment Partner Spotlight: Cape Cod Polish
This is the second post in our month-long series highlighting some of our most valuable employment partners in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. For our first feature, Triangle’s steadfast partner Cape Cod Polish is in the spotlight!
Cape Cod Polish has been a loyal ally of our Salem site since 2016. The owner, Jared Block, along with his wife and children, are great advocates for Triangle, Inc.’s mission of connecting people with dignified, independent work opportunities of which they can be proud.
Jared’s father founded Cape Cod Polish in Dennis, Massachusetts in 1991. Triangle and Cape Cod Polish crossed paths by luck: Jared and his family moved to the North Shore, and one of his neighbor’s sons worked for Triangle. As the neighbors got to know each other, a business opportunity began to take shape. Jared contacted Triangle’s Salem office, and together, they began to assess the job requirements.
They agreed that the primary responsibility would be packaging and sealing Cape Cod’s polishing cloths. Triangle began to bring a crew to Cape Cod Polish a few times a week, and a sustainable model of employment was born. Triangle’s crew consisted of a variety of program participants, including people for whom this was the first time on a jobsite, and others who already felt comfortable in packaging and assembly jobs.
The relationship has grown and flourished in the time that it has existed, and currently, a crew of 12 people from Triangle work at Cape Cod Polish four times a week. They perform a wide variety of tasks to fulfill orders in the warehouse.
Within the first year, Triangle and the team at Cape Cod came up with the idea of letting customers know that our program participants were now packaging the whole polish kits. As a result, we created an insert detailing Triangle’s history, as well as the innovative partnership we have with Cape Cod Polish. Cape Cod began to include the insert into every polishing kit that they sold, and sales grew! This shows how a creative workplace approach can be mutually beneficial, and provides a great model for future partnerships.
Triangle’s relationship with Cape Cod Polish directly reflects back to this year’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month theme: “America’s Workforce, Empowering All.” This theme was chosen to spread awareness about the value of a workforce that is inclusive of all skills and talents. Jared and his team have clearly seen the incredible benefits of employing a diverse workforce. Triangle is lucky to have employment partners who are committed to empowering people with disabilities through workplace opportunities, and Cape Cod Polish is a prime example!
Check back next week for our next employment partner spotlight!
