ATLANTA, Ga., December 2018, —Jewish Family & Career Services (JF&CS) Atlanta has partnered with Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe in Sandy Springs to provide workforce opportunities for adults through their Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services, Supported Employment Initiative.

Taziki’s Cafe is committed to hiring individuals with disabilities through The HOPE Project, an initiative dedicated to helping students with disabilities and at-risk youth flourish.

The HOPE Project aligns with JF&CS’s strategic goals and mission of making hope and opportunity happen through their Supported Employment Program, which provides the services needed to help employers and individuals with disabilities find each other and meet each other’s employment needs.

The JF&CS program aims to support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. The program follows a person-centered approach to ensure those with disabilities have a hand in directing their services and a voice in choosing their own destinies.

“We deeply value this partnership with JF&CS to support The HOPE Project with amazing individuals who are so diligent and committed to doing the very best job possible,” said Melissa Stripling, Taziki’s Café, Sandy Springs. “We’re teaching our other employees to see how adults with disabilities live and how, if you invest just a little time in them, they are wonderful, hard-working co-workers.”

The Sandy Springs restaurant has also indicated interest in purchasing herbs grown in the organic Giving Garden located at JF&CS’ Chamblee headquarters. The garden is tended by adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and volunteers, and is also used as a space for education and therapeutic activities.

“Our vision is to offer a variety of enrichment activities so that our clients might experience a good quality of life, and opportunities to integrate into the community by providing them with developmental supports, a social network, employment and even a means of transportation,” said Melissa DaSilva, Director of Intellectual and Development Disabilities Services, JF&CS. “Partnerships like this with Taziki’s Café are vital in assisting adults find meaningful work that utilizes their greatest talents and abilities in a supportive environment.”

Click here to learn more about the JF&CS Supported Employment Initiative. To learn more about The Hope Project, visit wegrowhope.org.