Getting a job isn’t hard when your skills are in demand and the employment market is hot.
But when you’re unskilled, and limited by physical or mental abilities, finding employment can be tough, even impossible.
That’s where Washington Vocational Services in Mountlake Terrace comes in. For more than 31 years, the nonprofit organization has helped to counsel, train and find jobs for people who otherwise might be passed by. More than 4,000 have found work through WVS since it began in 1976.
For John Stark, that extra help has proven to be just what he needed. Recently, he was one of the first to be trained as part of the nonprofit agency’s new Breakfast Cart program that’s making the rounds of several area businesses.
“I liked to meet all the new people when they came into class. And I really enjoyed the interaction with the people who bought things from the cart,” he said. “Working on the cart made me feel good because I was working and making a little money, too. I really liked getting to talk to the people.”
Stark worked out so well with the cart sales that he recently was hired by Dairy Queen. Since regular employment is the goal of all of the WVS programs, this was an early success for Natalie Peterson’s innovative program launched last July.
“We focus on matching people to jobs. Because the people we work with often are kept out of the work force by their limited skills, we begin working with them where they are and go from there. Many of our clients were told long ago that they couldn’t learn or couldn’t get a job. Instruction often stopped at an early age as people gave up on them. Soon, they didn’t believe they could do things, either,” said Peterson, WVS’s employment coordinator.
“One woman said she’d never be able to count change for the breakfast cart. Customers often wanted to step in and count it for her. But we helped her learn specifically how to sell muffins and other items and make change for them. She can’t make change everywhere she goes, but she can when she’s working on the breakfast cart. People need successes, even small ones, and then they grow,” she said.
For Peterson, it’s a matter of helping people grow and being able to earn money to help support themselves. Not all of the clients are capable of achieving that. Many can only work a few hours a day, she said, yet they continue to make progress and experience the exhilarating feeling of success that most people in the working world take for granted.
Peterson thought of the breakfast cart program months ago when she was looking for a new way to help people learn a skill and find employment. First, she said, she had to find something people want, like breakfast snacks for their morning coffee. Then, she found the right type of cart, loaded it with popular food items, found places interested in having the cart service and began choosing clients to train. At first, a trained job coach goes along with each person but stays in the background, letting the client handle the business sales and transactions on their own.
“For me, it’s a very personal thing to help them succeed,” Peterson said. “Everyone on the cart service gets out in the world, accomplishes a job and learns how to dress for success. They also learn that people aren’t always in good moods and they shouldn’t take it personally. They’re actively in the workplace, which is where they should be. People working on the cart tell me they love it.”
There are five people working in the cart service now. More will be added when additional businesses sign on. Currently, the carts deliver baked goods and snacks priced from 25 cents to $1 each, along with $1 cups of coffee and hot chocolate, between 8 and 10 a.m. Services also could be arranged for afternoons, evenings or weekend days.
Snohomish County government has been highly supportive of the program, she said, along with the YMCA at Silver Firs, Edmonds Community College and Western Pacific Co. in Everett’s Seaway Center industrial park.
WVS provides career counseling, job analysis, labor market surveys, work skill training and job development for people with a variety of disabilities, including hearing and vision. By emphasizing what clients can do rather than concentrating on what they can’t do, WVS is able to match talented workers with employer needs, Peterson said.
Some clients also find employment at Auntie Anne’s Hand Rolled Soft Pretzels at Seattle Premium Outlets in Quil Ceda Village, a franchise business run by WVS to support its nonprofit operations.
More information is available at www.wvs.org or by calling Peterson at 425-774-3338, Ext. 209, at the Mountlake Terrace headquarters. The organization also has offices in Bellevue, Mount Vernon and Anchorage.
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