Their journey into the workforce began in a makeshift grocery store built in the early 2000s in a North Hills warehouse to teach adults with disabilities how to become supermarket courtesy clerks, formerly called “box boys.”
Their days of receiving financial support from the state ended at age 18, and now as adults they were looking for what everyone wants — an opportunity and a paycheck.
A chance to show what they could do after all the years of living in the shadows and being told what they couldn’t.
“It was an open door,” said James Robinson, 38, a courtesy clerk for the last 14 years at Vons supermarket on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana. “It gave us the chance to succeed and build friendships with people we never would have met without this job New Horizons trained us for.”
The nonprofit, social service organization is celebrating its 70th year in the San Fernando Valley providing support and training to thousands of special needs clients, like Robinson, just asking for a chance.
They got it and what happened next is one of the Valley’s great success stories. People who were being written off by most of society rewrote their own scripts and became the stars.
“Customers love them,” said Rick Crandall, district manager for Albertsons and Vons. “They do an amazing job and have become the favorite associates of people shopping in our stores.”
You can’t fake enjoying your job when you’re working at the front end of a supermarket where the customers are checking out more than just prices. They’re checking out the special needs courtesy clerks, like Robinson, too.
“You can tell they look forward to coming to work,” Crandall said. “It’s their life. Other people have outside activities. To them, this is their home, their family.”
Crandall has been in the local grocery business for 53 years, starting with Dale’s Markets when he was 15-and-a-half. He’s learned a thing or two.
“David Dale, the owner, would work as a…
Read the full article here
