Employment Training
At Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Love, our mission extends beyond simply serving joy-inducing ice cream balls. We are dedicated to making a significant impact on the community by empowering individuals with disabilities through meaningful and engaging employment training.
We're currently in the process of launching our nonprofit, Good Grace Disability Services, which will provide a comprehensive 10-week employment training program both on and off the bus. Additionally, we're applying to become a vendor with Vocational Rehabilitation Services to offer job placement support upon completion of the internship.
The employment training program will focus on workplace readiness skills and personal development skills critical to longterm employment success; such as personal finance, self-advocacy in the workplace, customer service skills, food preparation and handling, and Serve Safe Skills.
At this time, we are looking to team up with local service providers to pilot our workplace training program to a population that is greatly unemployed. "According to a research study titled, 'National snapshot of adults with intellectual disabilities in the labor force', 'The unemployment rate for adults with Intellectual Disabilities/Developmental Disabilities (IDD) is more than twice as high as those without disabilities. 17% of working age adults with IDD are unemployed, compared to less than 3.7% of adults without disabilities who are unemployed” (numbers have been updated to reflect 2024 statistics).
We are committed to changing this!!! The grim statistic above highlight the need for social enterprises like Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Love committed to training individuals with disabilities in workplace skills and social skills that will lead to competitive employment. Our training program aims to foster confidence and serve as a bridge to creating social capital by nurturing relationships with potential employers in the community. Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Love will be the vehicle to competitive employment.
If you're interested in partnering to support our mission, interning with us, or hosting a Pop-Up Cooking and Employment Skills Class for the individuals you work with, please reach out. We'd be thrilled to connect with you.
What’s with the bus? We have intentionally chosen to build our food truck out of a "short bus”. The short bus has long been a symbol for the disability population and often times a symbol that has promoted stereotypes and led to exclusion for individuals with disabilities. We want to challenge this stereotype and transform this symbol to stand for inclusivity. We hope the bus will be a conversation starter and an opportunity to share more the history of the disability movement and the work we all have as a society to ensure a more equitable and accessible society for all individuals living with or without a disability.
