Friendship Cafe

Friendship Cafe offers employment training and education to adults and young adults with developmental disabilities who want to work in the food service, hospitality or customer service industry. Young adults with disabilities face a daunting challenge when they enter their working-stage. That’s because federally mandated services in many cases simply stop. So, in addition to losing out on programs, they also lose chances to just hang with friends. According to the US Department of Labor, approximately 8 in 10 persons with disabilities were not in the labor force in 2018 as compared to 3 in 10 of those with no disability. The barrier keeping people with disabilities from the workplace is attitudinal, hindered by low expectations for people with disabilities. Most special need adults have little prospect of meaningful employment and therefore the ability to build social skills needed for the workforce. Some individuals are relegated into “disability-only” workshops, or into jobs that do not pay a minimum wage, creating an environment with little expectation of meaningful competitive employment. At Friendship Cafe we show the world that we need to get rid of our stereotypical images and view each individual as just that, an individual.