Zabs Place

ZABS Place focuses on making career dreams come true for young adults with special needs talents. We help identify areas of talent and ability and work with each individual to help them become contributing members of the community in their area of talent.

Goals and dreams are not often realized unless they are recognized and appreciated by others. In our case, we need to build relationships with HR professionals looking to hire quality individuals to fill roles in their companies.

In the past, when we reached out to companies about hiring our graduating ZABS Special Talent, we were faced with many questions, most of which conveyed their doubt about whether our ZABS Talent could fit in and be an asset to their company, rather than a token member or a liability.

We aim to shift the thought process surrounding employability of individuals with Special Talents. Rather than being overlooked, they will be viewed as viable candidates for jobs in their area of interest and with their specific skill set. The number of employers using our portal, along with the number of Special Talent hired will be our best indicator of impact.

Solving the employment crisis for individuals with disabilities is somewhat of a Catch 22: It’s really hard to get a job without any work experience but it’s even harder to get work experience without a job… At ZABS Place we recognize that everyone and everything has value and we are committed to providing opportunities for young adults with special needs to identify and develop their own special talents in the warm environment of our store.

By assessing the interests and abilities of each individual, we are able to customize a training plan to harness their special talents and prepare them to transition into their dream careers. Over the last 6 years, we’ve trained and employed more than 150 Special Talent at ZABS Place and many have graduated and moved on to employment elsewhere.

ZABS Place's unique approach to individualized training allows us to both streamline and ensure our training program for each specially talented young adult reflects their unique abilities, dreams, goals, skill building, and progress.

There is numerous research indicating that when one successfully reaches milestones and accomplishes goals, their confidence and overall quality of life increases beyond their initial expectations.

By training our Talent to check their daily tasks, mark their own progress as they work, and leave anecdotal notes as needed, they’ll better appreciate every milestone and be able to celebrate every success. As Yogi Berra says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else!” It’s the difference between being the driver or the passenger. We want to empower our Special Talent to play a more active role in their training, skill development, and pursuit of their dreams instead of just riding along wherever opportunities take them.

We all know that interviews can be nerve wracking and that it’s hard to know if you’re good at something if you’ve never had a chance to try it. That’s why all young adults interested in ZABS Place start off in our 4-month “Talent-In-Training” program, whether they’re looking for job-skills training, or a paid position.

Here’s what happens:
Identify Dreams: We start with a Meet & Greet and ask our favorite question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We use the answer to understand their interests and aspirations.

Realize the Opportunity: With their dreams in mind, our coaches prepare a series of “Job- Sampling” tasks to introduce each trainee to job duties that appeal to their interests and skills while ensuring their support needs are met.

Customize Training: Based on the results and feedback of each trainee during their Job- Sampling phase, our coaches create a personalized training plan, built around individual ability, to teach and strengthen necessary transferable skills.

Grow Abilities: Our process continues with hands-on management to help trainees grow confident in their skills and master new ones.

Then what? That really depends. For some, our Talent-In-Training program offers just the experience they needed to gain confidence and be successful in a work-environment and they go on to apply to their dream job. For others, they may come back for another semester of training so they can continue improving their skills. Then there are those who show that retail, or one of the many other aspects of employment at ZABS Place, truly is their dream job, and when financially possible they are hired and become a member of the ZABS Talent team.

Graduate Success: Ultimately, for most of our ZABS Talent, our goal is to graduate our employees to careers across the community.

Over the last 6 years, we’ve had more than 150 Special Talent train or be employed at ZABS Place. Many of them graduated and moved on to employment elsewhere, but only half of those hired found employment doing something meaningful in their area of interest.

ZABS Place is focused on 5 strategic initiatives:
- Improve our Talent Accelerator Program: Our goal is to help each of our ZABS Talent (our specially-talented Young Adults) progress strategically in their talent and skill development to advance their careers. Each of our ZABS Talent has a clearly defined starting point as well as a desired goal.

- Upcycling University: Upcycling University is a platform that inspires the creativity of individuals with special talents by teaching them how to create masterpieces using everyday items. Art is an important outlet for self-expression and for people who might otherwise struggle to express themselves; art is especially important.

- ZABSprenuers: Our ZABS micro-business incubator program, launched in 2017,
supports specially-talented young adults who have a passion, a product idea, and need a “beta-testing” ground and sales platform. We guide our ZABSpreneurs through supply sourcing, quality assurance, cost/pricing determination, packaging & presentation, and marketing. We have a dedicated space in ZABS Place to feature the products of each of our ZABSpreneurs along with their photo and a brief bio. We currently have 14
ZABSpreneurs in the program, with plans for 50 by 2025.

- ZABSmentorz and Placement: In an effort to offer a greater level of support to our young adults as they discover their unique talents and pursue their dreams, we have started the ZABSmentor Program. Each participant is paired with a ZABSmentor, a “field-expert” from the community, who shares real-world insight into the day-to-day aspects of their mentee’s dream job and helps them break down the steps of how to achieve their goals. By harnessing the experience of community professionals, we are able to offer more relevant support and bridge the gap between our Special Talent and the careers they wish to pursue.