'YOUTHABILITY' PROGRAM TEACHES JOB SKILLS TO LOCAL YOUTH

EUREKA, CA- The ‘Youth-ability’ program is working to provide North Coast young people with job training skills. The program has run and operated popular spots like the Vance Café.
The restaurant’s doors are now closed, but the program is helping local teens open new windows. Rose Baker, the Executive Director said, "most of them didn't know sometimes where they were going to sleep at night or where they were going to eat in the morning."
 
Baker started the program 7 years ago at “The Angels of Hope Thrift Store”. Here the youth learn basic job skills, like how to manage a cash register and work with others. Baker added, "It gives them something to be proud off. They go to school and tell everybody they got a job."
 
Even though the Vance Café is close, Baker says they are continuing to look for new places. Baker added, “we need a place where the youth can go to the tables and take orders and deliver them properly."
 
Baker added that working in the food industry builds character. At least that’s how former trainee Yvette Cueto feels. Cueto said, "Before I came to the cafe I didn't work well with people."
 
Cueto has since graduated from high school and is now working on pursuing her dream to open up her own bakery. Cueto added, "it's help me a lot because I had a very stressful life and coming here was kind of a way to get away from it."
 
She adds that the job experience she has learned at the café will be with her forever. To find out more about the organization just got to their website at youthability.org.