MACARTHUR PARK : Former Clients Get Taste of Experience

A small store has opened across the street from MacArthur Park, and success has seldom tasted so sweet.

Operating in the employee lounge of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health offices at 2415 W. 6th St., Corporate Cookie offers cookies, fruit drinks, yogurt and other sweets.

Compared to other sweet shops, Corporate Cookie is cut from a different mold, said Dr. Areta Crowell, director of the county mental health department.

“Corporate Cookie was established to provide training and jobs for people who have been our clients and who are now contributing members of the community again,” Crowell said.

Corporate Cookie is a subsidiary of Portals, a nonprofit United Way mental health agency. The new store and the main Corporate Cookie outlet on Wilshire Boulevard allow employees, who with the help of counselors have overcome mental-health disabilities, to learn business skills and prepare for other jobs, said John Kulli, a Portals board member.

Tim Casey, who worked the counter on opening day Nov. 16, said he was grateful for the opportunity to learn about a business from the bottom up. “This is real hands-on experience,” he said. “We learn how to make the cookies, keep track of inventory, bookkeeping and customer services. Then they put us out there and say, ‘Go do it.’ ”

Corporate Cookies also offers year-round gift selections and deliveries. Information: (213) 738-6069.