Dog Tag Bakery

Fellowship program: Dog Tag's fellowship program acts as a catalyst for building resilience, finding renewed purpose, and forging a community for veterans with service-connected disabilities, military spouses and caregivers. Dti's fellowship program is comprised of five (5) integrated programming areas that work together to empower fellows to approach their civilian life on their terms: 1) education fellows earn a customized business certificate from a top university in 90+ hours of courses, gaining foundational business skills; 2) hands-on learning - fellows spend 80+ hours solidifying lessons learned in class through immersion in a small business, earning practical leadership and teamwork experience; 3) learning labs - fellows participate in 100+ hours of programming to explore careers and gain skills through program service accomplishments: workshops with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and subject-matter experts; 4) wellness - fellows participate in 80+ hours of activities designed to provide opportunities and strategies to process their past, reflect on their current experiences, and envision their future; and 5) capstone - fellows spend 30+ hours to utilize strategic thinking, planning, and decision-making to develop a robust business plan, solidifying the value of an entrepreneurial mindset.starting in fy23, Dog Tag piloted the reintroduction of in-person programming for a portion of the fellowship. Dog Tag began piloting a hybrid fellowship schedule in september 2022 with the addition of "welcome back week" (wbw), a week of in-person programming held at Dog Tag Bakery in Washington, dc. Wbw served as a test for future hybrid program models and provided dt with critical program and operational data about the experience, impact and operational realities of different program modalities. Building upon this program data, dt worked with compass consulting in 2023 to review our program delivery models and chart out potential paths forward. This work focused on gathering feedback from a variety of stakeholders and mapping program delivery models against our curriculum and planned outcomes and impacts for fellows. For all fy23 fellowship programming, we provided our fellows with the hardware and access to online platforms needed to continue participating in course work and training remotely without significant interruption to our program. All dti staff, learning lab partners, and georgetown university instructors continued to adapt their lesson plans, instruction and coursework for a hybrid program. Our programs team has closely monitored fellows' coursework remotely, and conducted one-on-one check-ins with fellows and staff to ensure the feasibility of the curriculum. Dti remains committed to ensuring the quality of instruction and support for which we're known.our team continues to monitor program insights to implement creative strategies in order to ensure the ongoing delivery of our high quality, high impact programming.

Bakery program - Dog Tag Inc. (Dog Tag) (doing business as Dog Tag Bakery) was incorporated in 2011 under the laws of the district of columbia. Fellows' business coursework builds a strong foundation for the exploration and skills-building provided by rotations. With Dog Tag staff serving as mentors and teachers, fellows spend up to six hours per week in hands-on learning opportunities ("rotations") throughout the operations of Dog Tag (including our Bakery.) Rotations provide fellows with first-hand experience in how a business runs: giving them an understanding of both the daily tasks and overall big picture of how the business functions. This intensive, experiential aspect, where fellows are immersed in Dog Tag's day-to-day operations, is what sets Dog Tag apart from other transition programs; fellows don't just study business-they live, work, and experience business first-hand. The physical space of the Bakery serves to support our program as well as our community. Dog Tag has partnered with other veteran organizations for open mic night at the Bakery, as well as meeting and event space in our classroom. Each day we welcome our neighbors, partners, and customers to support our organization through the purchase of a coffee or cookie at the Bakery and learn more about our mission, our impact, and how to support our veterans, military spouses, and caregivers.