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They do it to help people.
"The mission is to provide job training for people that nobody else accepts, that fall through the cracks, that need the personal skills along with the job training skills," says Ruth Cronenberg, a consultant for the Venice on Vine pizza parlor, which also houses Venice on Vine Catering.
Both are programs of Power Inspires Progress (PIP, powerinspiresprogress.com), which creates opportunities for job training and job readiness skills for low-income individuals.
While most companies try to hire people with the most impressive resumes, Venice on Vine wants ex-felons, the homeless and others whom traditional businesses wouldn't consider as potential employees.
"People who have never worked or were incarcerated when they were 18 or 19 don't even know what's required to come for a job interview," says Barbara Wheeler, a Dominican Sister of Hope who cofounded PIP. "They don't know that you wear different clothes, that you have different mannerisms, that you talk about positive things.
"We have three job interviews. They must come three times and on time before they're even hired. Some people just get spaced out from the first interview."
Once hired, a new employee makes $5.26 an hour and must successfully complete an orientation period in the pizza parlor.
"We have three shifts, and now we're working with them so that they have at least two days on every shift where they just watch what's going on," Wheeler says. "They must complete that, and then they start from there."
Things like learning how to operate a cash register, taking an order, doing inventory and ordering supplies are all handled by staff under the supervision of their trainers. Referring to the entire operation as a learning environment, Cronenberg says profits from the foodservice operations don't cover their costs.
"Everybody works at a slower pace because it's a learning pace," she says. "You don't have one person back there making pizzas as fast as they can. You have people back there learning how to make pizza, so the process takes more people and more time."
In addition to tossing dough and preparing buffet dinners, employees learn essential life skills such as working as a team and managing money.
"A lot of individuals are brought in to do workshops for the people here," Cronenberg explains. "We've had people come in teach them how to talk to one another, to do direct 'I' statements: 'I feel this.' The things a lot of us get trained for in school and various places."
By far, the favorite for all the employees is the catering work.
"It's like a field trip," says Judy Tensing, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and cofounder of PIP. "Last night I took Anastasia (an employee) to St. X High School. She saw there is an all-boys school. Then to have people thank her for her services is a real boost to building her skills."
Tensing says these opportunities teach employees that they have choices in their lives and what some of those choices might be.
