Nonprofit Reimagines Workforce By Employing People With Disabilities

Nonprofit Compassion Cafe in New Jersey is changing who participates in the U.S. workforce by employing adults and teenagers with disabilities, and providing them with real-world training. Stephanie Ruhle spoke to the workers and founder about their efforts. Plus, columnist and author, Liz Plank, and disability rights advocate, Rebecca Cokley, join to discuss.

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Nonprofit Reimagines Workforce By Employing People With Disabilities

27 comments

  1. Remember, don’t forget about people with gender disphoria. It’s illegal to discriminate. (Hey I don’t make the laws or the science. Don’t like it? Not my fault I found a technicality that offends you.)

  2. Can Compassion Cafe expand? I’m a teacher retiring to Big Island, Hawaii. Our son has mild autism and intellectual disability. I’d like to open such a cafe. I like the idea of visitors saying “Hey look, there’s a Compassion Cafe on Big Island”. An organization website with an interactive map to Compassion Cafe’s everywhere would accelerate the movement. I’m a GIS instructor so I always come back to maps!

    1. You don’t have to do something exactly alike or use the same name.. If you start something with what you have, some people will come along, if you wait for the right conditions, right place, etc… you may end up never doing anything.. Good luck!
      Also, I would recommend that you check the YT channel named “Beau of the Fifth Column”, lots of vids on many things but plenty of them deal with community networking…

    2. @Laurent Saint-Laurent I’ve been subscribed to Beau for over a year. You missed the point I was trying to make. There is enhanced value in not creating the same thing under different names. It’s like everyone starting a McDonalds but they have to name it something different even though it’s the same. No one would be able to instantly recognize what the business provides – and in this case it’s really important. It’s like if I’m looking for a Montessori school and I can’t find one on Big Island because they’ve named it something else. People recognize a name AND what the name represents.

  3. reimagines?? the canadian government and small businesses teamed up and implemented identical programs decades ago

    1. compassion doesnt win wars. You don’t win wars by dying for your cause . You win wars by making the other SOB die for their cause

    2. @mjimih Is human history ..wars between times of peace, or is it peace between times of war. You think its peaceful now, its time to prepare for war.,

  4. Americans with disabilities have very good daily attendance to work!!!โค๐Ÿ’ฏ๐Ÿ˜Š

  5. I love business owners such as this! Looking to what can be achieved is what we should all celebrate v what could go wrong.

  6. Succeed or fail at least these people tried to make a change for the better. The workers felt part of something and that in itself made it worth trying.

  7. This is the kind of American spirit we should and can all get behind. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿ™

  8. What a beautiful company of people.
    God bless Stephanie Ruhle for her smart, compassionate reporting.

    1. @Anna Galesz High-priced CEOs in various jurisdictions have become an issue with the Goodwill. Nevertheless, they do provide Employment to people with varying degrees of disability that might not otherwise be able to find work. The heartwarming thing is that these disabled individuals do want to work.

  9. First working at the coffee shop, Next, democratic politicians, great idea, I will support them.

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