Get Involved - Work Options

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Why Support Work Options?

DUAL PURPOSE

Work Options is addressing two community needs at the same time:

Increasing Social Equity

Our hands-on training helps individuals who have previously faced challenges joining the workforce to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of sustainable employment, learn employable skills and gain the confidence needed to secure long-term employment in the food service industry.

Alleviating Food Insecurity

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Work Options students have been preparing nutritious meals to help alleviate hunger and food insecurity for families and individuals across the Greater Denver area. To date, our students and staff have produced over 200,000 emergency meals.

Sustainable Employment

Work Options provides industry-focused job training for the culinary sector, a sector that provides stable employment. Most graduates go on to work in commercial kitchens where they are able to gain longer lasting stability due to the presence of unions, company offered benefits, and supportive company culture.

Social Enterprise

Work Options operates three social enterprise businesses. These businesses insure we are able to continue providing our students with hands-on culinary skills practice and they also help us to generate revenue to offset the cost of our programming.

Partnerships

Work Options partners with both other nonprofits and governmental agencies to co-support our students. This means, we are not duplicating services and can focus our attention on helping students to learn the skills they need to get a job and stay employed.

Success

Work Options is effectively helping graduates to obtain employment and to stay employed. 75% of Work Options’ graduates stayed employed for over a year. Nationally, the job retention rate is around 25%.

Your Donations Make Work Options Work

Your financial contribution helps us continue operating our job training and support program.

Volunteer

with Work Options

Prior to the pandemic, Work Options benefited from utilizing relied on community volunteers to help set-up, staff and cleanup after our annual fundraising events.

We have also welcomed volunteers with specialized skills. For example, volunteers with a Human Resources background have served as job coaches; helped students prepare resumes, practice interviewing skills and complete online applications. Volunteers with a background in Adult Education and Social Work have been guest speakers in our job-readiness/life skills classes. And volunteer chefs have taught special culinary techniques in our training kitchens.

For health and safety reasons, Work Options has not been able to utilize volunteers since the pandemic began, but we hope to begin using volunteers again, once the pandemic is better under better control. Please check back regularly as we update our volunteer opportunities.