New Program to Train Disabled for Jobs

Advocates for the disabled Thursday unveiled a new program designed to train people with disabilities for jobs in the hospitality and food service industry.

Through CoffeeWorks, a program that focuses on the specialty coffee business, physically disabled men and women will learn to make and serve coffee in preparation for real-world job opportunities, officials said.

“Our clients are people who really want to be self-sufficient but who face significant barriers to employment,” said Vivian Seigel, CEO and executive vice president of Jewish Vocational Service, which runs the training program at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Center in West Hills.

While most training programs prepare disabled people for assembly-line jobs, such positions fail to integrate them into the larger world, officials said.

By maintaining a coffee kiosk in the community center’s lobby, disabled workers will have a unique opportunity to interact with able-bodied customers, officials said.

In addition to earning a living, officials said participants will also learn teamwork, customer service, food-industry safety practices, management, inventory control and money management.

Trainees will undergo daily four-hour classroom training sessions for four weeks, officials said. Successful candidates’ workdays will vary depending on their abilities, with the average workday lasting about six to seven hours.

Although the trainees are paid for their work, the goal of the program is to encourage them to find full-time, permanent jobs after eight weeks working at the kiosk, officials said.

“We designed CoffeeWorks to give them the one-on-one guidance and counseling they need, in addition to the skills training they’ll get on the job,” Seigel said.

Through the program, officials said they hope to improve the lives of some of Los Angeles’ disabled population, which numbers 618,365 according to the most recent U.S. Census data.

More than one-third of the city’s disabled are young adults between 16 and 34 who are seeking meaningful work, officials said.

CoffeeWorks is funded through the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance and Wells Fargo Foundation, in addition to profits earned from coffee sales, officials said.

Jewish Vocational Service provided employment programs and services to more than 7,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area last year. Information on agency programs is available online at https://www.jvvsla.org.