"Hugs" Cafe is spreading love for the disabled

A Texas café is making a difference in their community by hiring adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Since 2015, Ruth Thompson, owner of Hugs Café and Greenhouse in McKinney, Texas, has been providing valuable training and work experience and competitive wages to an often overlooked part of the workforce: adults with disabilities.

Thompson realized that we, as a society, take care of disabled children, but once they age out of the school system, they depend on their families for survival, so she created a place where adults with disabilities are asked what they can do, not what they can’t do. Everyone at Hugs Café and Greenhouse is referred to as a teammate, not an employee, and they’re all held to the same high standards.

The team members at Hugs feel valued and say they love working there. As a matter of fact, there’s a waiting list to get a job at Hugs. So Thompson recently started the Hugs training academy, where disabled adults can learn the skills it takes to land a job and possibly get matched up with one of the organizations partnering companies. In the end, that’s what Thompson wants for those she’s helping: “Meaningful employment, that’s what everyone wants.”

Source: CBS News


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