AboutWork Options
Helping people learn job-ready skills, gain confidence and secure sustainable employment in the food service industry.
Work Options helps adult students prepare for, find and maintain meaningful careers in the food service industry.
We offer culinary skills training, individualized support services, life skills classes and job search support. We’re grateful to help support individuals in the community who have struggled with finding or maintaining long-term employment and seek to support individuals who are navigating the justice system, experiencing housing insecurity, or need additional workplace skills and experience. We work in partnership with students to help each individual resolve barriers to employment so graduates can find and maintain meaningful careers.
At Work Options, we see the drive, we acknowledge the uniqueness and skill of each individual, and use a strength-based model to support students as they resolve employment barriers, learn culinary skills and increase their self-confidence.
Our Mission
To help people overcome barriers to sustainable employment by building confidence while providing resources and culinary job training.
OurImpact
of Program Participants are employed after graduation
individuals obtained employment over the last25 years
of program graduates stay employed for a year or more
of justice-involved graduates retain employment for 1 year
Alleviating Food Insecurity During the Pandemic
At the beginning of the pandemic, and now, students are getting hands-on culinary skills practice (and giving back to the community) by preparing nutritious emergency meals. By 2023, Work Options staff and students have produced and distributed more than 200,000 emergency meals through community partnerships to families and individuals facing hunger and food insecurity
OurHistory
Work Options has been providing job-ready training for 25 years. In 1997, when our organization obtained its nonprofit certification, our agency was called Work Options for Women. In May 2021, we formally changed our name to Work Options to better reflect our agency’s long-standing commitment to providing job training for all individuals, regardless of gender.
Historically, Work Options has recruited and provided job-training for for individuals with minimal work experience or who are under-skilled. For many years, a majority of the students in our program were individuals who were transitioning off of public assistance and into the workplace. In 2018, we added an additional target population — individuals preparing to re-enter the community following incarceration.
OurTeam
Julie Stone
Angela O'Leary
Tessa Houston
Tamika Simmons
Joe Beggs
Christine Geerts
Recruitment and Community engagement Specialist
Denver Training Center
Anne Carver
Gabi Patz
Bryan Machesky
Charlene DelVescovo
April Jones
The Helping Hen Food Truck & Park Hill Commissary
Jason Schmidt
Shannon Boehler
Bishmi Washington
Mobile Culinary Classroom
Tina Wellons
Brittany Jones
Board ofDirectors
Sarah Bleau, Board Chair
Jorge De La Torre
Tarrah Garcia
JR Garcia, Treasurer
John Imbergamo
Jennifer Madden, Secretary
ourSupporters
- DaVita Village
- Village Inn
- Western paper
- Susan Stark
- Imbergamo Group
- Uptown Mortgagae
- Modus Strategic Solutions
- Ratio Beerworks
- Shamrock Foods
- Bauerle and Company
- Charles Schwab
- Better Health Acupuncture
- Gerald Jeffris
- Mile High United way
- Courtney Pullen Consulting
- The Colorado Trust
- Cluster Truck
- Allegro Coffee
- Fagre Baker Daniels
- Pepsico
- Complete Bookkeeping & Accouting
- U.S. Bank/Ascent Capital
