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The Yachad Café is a once a month event where the participants of Yachad Israel’s vocational program get a chance to display the skills that they have learned in the program. The Café is held at the Yachad Israel’s Vocational Training Center in the German Colony of Jerusalem. The Center’s workplace skills classroom is transformed into a café with tablecloths, centerpieces, music, and a menu of soup, salad, pasta and fish. The Yachad Café is a great opportunity for the families and friends of the participants and patrons of Yachad Israel to see firsthand the progress the participants have made in Yachad Israel’s vocational training program. The Café night was successful at bringing in 4,000 shekel for the Yachad Vocational Scholarship Fund.
The Yachad Israel vocational training center was created by Yachad to give young adults with special needs from English speaking homes a chance to learn the skills they need to maximize their chances of independence in the future. Yachad uses this café as a means to teach skills such as: cooking, menu design, serving, and other food service-related jobs. This is just one of the focuses of the Yachad vocational training program, which also teaches other skills including, customer service, elder care, and retail sales. Additionally, each week the members visit a site related to the skills they are learning so they learn to understand the workplace environment as well. After the program, the participants go onto internships where they work with a job coach.
The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.