What are some major misconceptions of hiring employees with developmental disabilities?
Athan: Mainly people think that people with developmental disabilities can’t do the same jobs that typically abled people can do. That’s the biggest misconception.
A good example is when we first opened the restaurant, we hired some cooks who were not disabled. They weren’t social workers and didn't know much about working with people with disabilities. So one day, one of the cooks told one of our disabled employees to cut the french fries. My first thought was, “Oh he can’t, he doesn’t have fine motor skills.” But the disabled employee went and cut the french fries. This was someone whose support team said he couldn't do that. I learned you have to give everyone the chance to do everything. It was a good lesson for us and likely an even better lesson for him.
It’s opening everybody’s mind in a different way. And there’s a lot of laughing. There’s a lot of hugging. It’s much more light-hearted than I think it would normally be.
What’s next for Jack’s and Steamers?
Jack: In the front half of our prep kitchen, we’re going to build a deli. The second half of the prep kitchen will be a culinary school where we can bring in individuals to teach them skills. At first, they’re going to come in and learn, and as they get closer to graduating, it’s going to turn into a paid internship. And then once they graduate, they’ll have a certificate and a number of different organizations, including us, will help place them into the workforce.
Can you imagine if every restaurant or business in Arvada had one special needs employee? That segment of the workforce is probably 80-90 percent unemployed. There’s a lot of people out there that desperately want to work, that are capable and aren’t given a chance. It's a little deal, but we’re doing as much as we can to help.
We hire great people. It doesn’t matter where they come from or what their background is. Everyone that we hire is good at something and we find that.