LIGHTING A SPARK
Socially conscious startups get boost from Impact Accelerator program
Dinika Hightower sells aromatherapy products to promote self-care. Jermika Cost resells stylish vintage clothing to raise money to help the victims of sex trafficking. Vangella Buchanan helps marginalized writers get their books published. Khamani Harrison sells books about Afrocentrism, spirituality and the environment.
These are four of 16 new Connecticut entrepreneurs chosen to participate in an initiative to supercharge socially conscious startups. The 2021 Impact Accelerator is organized by reSET, a business-support organization based in the Parkville section of Hartford.
Emily Reisner of reSET said the 10-week “mini business school” chooses promising entrepreneurs who need to learn how to scale up their enterprises. “We teach business acumen. We have coaching. There is a legal specialist, tech consultants, people who do branding and marketing,” Reisner said.
All companies chosen to participate prioritize social impact, with sustainable products, socially conscious messages or nonprofit collaborations. Many of the entrepreneurs are women and people of color.
Reisner said the pandemic did not discourage social-impact entrepreneurs. “There is definitely a sense of ‘This is the time to make an impact to create the world we all want to live in,’ ” Reisner said.
NorthEnd Rose
H i g h t owe r ’s 1 0 -ye a r- o l d massage-therapist business tanked when the coronavirus restrictions set in. Rather than despair, she wondered how to create a lockdown-proof business. She had an idea: She used scented products for her massages. Why not put those essential oils in candles and diffusers?
In May, she launched NorthEnd Rose Scent Studio (northendrose.com). “I was blending tea blends for friends, scents
that help people calm down. This might be something I could do in the house,” she said.
She created scented products, including a series based on places she visited as a child in Hartford: Twain house, Park Street, Mozzicatto’s, etc. Her products sold out. She made more. Those sold out.
She said the pandemic played a role in her choice of scents. “Mental fatigue has started going up and up and up. People don’t know what to do. There are ways
conducting a competitive selection process or even contacting a competitor about it — to take the lead role in handling DPH’s communications about the COVID-19 pandemic from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28.
The contract could be extended beyond that, Dr. Deidre Gifford, DPH’s acting commissioner, told Government Watch a week ago.
Gifford said her agency’s “communications and press relations demands” have increased so drastically during the pandemic that it “had to increase its responsiveness to members of the press, as well as and internal and external efforts to communicate with the public.” She said she “reviewed the state’s approved vendor list for media, marketing and public relations contracts and found McDowell Communications, which employs a CDC Crisis Communication trained communications expert in Maura Fitzgerald who recently served [from 2016 to 2019] as the director of communications for the Department of Public Health. In addition, the firm as a whole is also able to provide guidance and strategy as it relates to spreading actionable messages to encourage our residents to receive the vaccine.”
Criticism of the contract award included state House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora’s statement that “it smells more of politics than of policy.” He said the “extraordinary powers that the governor has right now” under emergency pandemic orders, which enable him to bypass bidding, “should be used as restrictively as possible, and I am not sure in these circumstances ... they have been used in a restrictive manner.”
In a statement posted on its website Jan. 2, in response to The Courant column, WFSB said McDowell would remain on the program but not report on issues related to the coronavirus.
“WFSB’s ‘Face the State’ is meant to address the pulse of Connecticut politics, and that is why Duby McDowell is one of the independent contractor hosts,” it said. “We understand that her unrelated PR firm has a state contract regarding to COVID-19 communications, and for that reason going forward she will not report on COVID-19 for the show. She brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and understanding of a variety of other hot button topics that will surely keep ‘Face the State’ viewers engaged and educated.”
But by Tuesday, a link to that posting instead returned a page that read: “Sorry, the page you’re looking for cannot be found.”
McDowell had a high-visibility career as a political reporter and interviewer on
WFSB from 1988 to 2000 before moving on to public relations work. A registered Democrat, she has made financial contributions to committees and candidates affiliated with that party,and had expressed strong support for Lamont in recent years.
A Nov. 8, 2018, post in her firm’s online newsletter said “we congratulate our friend and client, Ned Lamont, on winning Tuesday’s election.” The newsletter went on to say that McDowell’s partner in the firm at the time, Steve Jewett, “served as the campaign’s senior advisor and chief strategist.” It also said: “We look forward to continuing to support Governor-Elect Lamont and seeing the positive change he will bring Connecticut.”
McDowell and Rennie each will discuss their departures on the taped show on Sunday. “We explain at the conclusion of Sunday’s very interesting program why we are leaving,” Rennie said.
Sunday’s guests are U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, and Yale political science professor Jacob Hacker, discussing Wednesday’s rioting by supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol.
Criticism of the DPH-McDowell contract continued in the past week, as The Day of New London published an editorial headlined “Duby’s dubious COVID communications contract” on
Thursday, saying: “It is all well and good to waive bid procedures to rush protective equipment to first responders and health personnel, or to quickly set up a testing site, but using emergency authority for a communications consulting deal — and a questionable one at that — looks like an abuse of that authority.”
Fitzgerald, the senior vice president at McDowell Communications who Gifford said would play a leading role on the contract, is a Democrat. She headed the press operation for Richard Blumenthal’s successful 2010 Democratic campaign for U.S. Senate and then was his deputy district director for five years. Later, she headed the health department’s communications operation for three years while Democrat Dannel P. Malloy was governor. She is the niece of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson.
Also working on the contract for the McDowell firm is Dean Pagani, the former radio newsman and veteran Republican political staffer in Connecticut and Washington, D.C.