Skills of Life Café empowers young people with special needs who ‘fall between the cracks’ with job training, personal skills

The shiny black coffee cart that opened at the end of October outside of Simpkins Family Swim Center in Live Oak isn’t your typical place to grab a post-swim carrot cake muffin and a chai. Behind its menu of snacks, homemade baked goods, coffee and tea is a mission that aims to change the lives of the young people who work there. 

Occupational therapist Molly Turner founded Skills of Life Café to empower individuals with special needs. The café, which operates as a nonprofit, offers job training to neurodivergent teens and young adults with conditions like autism and Down syndrome. 

Turner has been an occupational therapist for 25 years at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, and also spent eight years working with the Santa Cruz City Schools district. Throughout her career, she noticed that while there are programs in Santa Cruz County to support individuals who need high levels of care, there weren’t many jobs available to those who need minimal assistance and would like to be more independent.

“There’s not a lot of challenge, or if they have job opportunities, they get to be a bagger at a store, or fill salt and pepper shakers at a restaurant,” said Turner. “The goal of this is to target those that typically would fall between the cracks, and would be disregarded when they really want to get a job out there.” 

There are seven employees – Turner calls them interns – currently working at the café, although there is room for 12. Each intern works two four-hour shifts a week, and earns wages from their employer of record, which might be Santa Cruz City Schools or San Andreas Regional Center, depending on the person. After the 11-month-long program ends, the interns can present the skills they’ve developed to a potential employer, and use Turner as a reference.

Turner’s goal this year is to partner with at least 12 businesses who will consider applicants who have graduated from the program. So far, a local restaurant, ice cream parlor, coffee roaster and grocery store have shown interest, but none has committed. 

One current intern wants to be a barista, said Turner. But after being hired at a local coffee shop, she was let go on her first day. At Skills of Life, she can practice service skills and self-improvement that could potentially help her land another job at a coffee house once she graduates from the program. “This is a great boot camp for her,” Turner said. 

The experience at Skills of Life builds confidence and skills that can be applied to whatever the intern’s individual goals are. Claire Nazareth, 26, enjoys working and socializing at the café, and would like to work at a local coffee shop, while Gemma Vitug, 16, likes making new friends and brewing coffee, and said she’d like to become a makeup artist or work in a shop when she gets older. Other interns have dreams of one day working with animals, or in child care. 

In addition to learning how to take orders, prepare different kinds of drinks and serve snacks, the interns focus on practicing what Turner calls “soft skills,” like time management, organization, social skills and knowing when to ask for help or take a break. 

Other Santa Cruz County programs like Monarch ILS and The CALI Project help individuals with disabilities achieve a certain level of independence, but Skills of Life is the only program Turner is aware of in the county that offers real-world job training. 

“They have programs where they try to help people find a job. We are the program that has the job,” said Turner. “We’re unique in that. It’s already been two months, and I’ve already seen progress in every single intern. It’s amazing.”

Based on her decades of work as an occupational therapist, Turner believes there are hundreds of Santa Cruz County residents who could benefit from a work program like this: “The autism spectrum is huge, and people get stuck. They’re in the system their whole life, fueled by schedule and routine, but at the age of 22 that stops. What do you do?” 

Skills of Life Café aims to help those who would like to enter the workforce, but need to build necessary skills in a low-stakes environment. 

“It’s very safe and slow. They have me constantly saying that it’s OK to make mistakes,” said Turner. “That’s the beauty of this. It’s a real café, but they have the opportunity to learn.”

Turner was inspired to start Skills of Life Café in 2019 after visiting Lucky Ones Coffee, a coffee shop in Park City, Utah, that employs people with disabilities. When she returned to Santa Cruz, Turner pitched the idea to Santa Cruz County Parks based on the agency’s mission to foster inclusivity, community and connection. In early 2020, the plans for the café were included in the new design for Simpkins Swim Center, which was preparing to go under construction that year. 

For the next three years, Turner fundraised “like crazy” for the café by hosting events like cornhole parties and golf tournaments. Eventually, she earned enough to purchase a new $55,000 coffee cart, mostly through small personal donations and a few larger gifts from the Santa Cruz Chapter of Omega Nu and NHS, Inc. co-founder Richard Novak. 

In October, Turner finally picked up the custom-designed trailer and parked it at its new home on a patio outside of the swim center. They began serving customers five days a week on Oct. 26. While service lately has been slow because of the holidays and the weather, Turner said feedback from the community has been positive, with many repeat customers. 

In the future, she’s aiming to open the café seven days a week, grow the number of interns and hire people into leadership positions to help run the café and place interns in jobs. Turner, who still works 20 hours a week as an occupational therapist in addition to working full-time at Skills of Life, would also like to bring on volunteers to oversee shifts. 

Although some of the interns might not be able to reach some of the goals at the café, she said growth can look different for each individual. “We have one intern who isn’t high functioning, but it’s incredible how she’s growing,” said Turner. “Her father has given me so many updates about the progress they’re seeing at their home. She’s not going to meet the independent level, but she’s reached a level that is fulfilling and amazing for her family. And that’s what this is all about.”

Skills of Life Café is located outside Simpkins Family Swim Center at 979 17th Ave., Live Oak, and is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. More information at its website and on Instagram.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.