"The mission here is really to help people get jobs in the community.
We do that today in this social enterprise where we'll take people that come in that maybe need a hand, we'll get them back on their feet," Chrysalis Center CEO Sharon Castelli tells the Hartford Courant.
The Connecticut nonprofit's La Cocina Culinary Arts Training Program was first established before the COVID-19 pandemic to provide training for high-risk young adults and adults with mental health diagnoses, educational limits, criminal records, or addictions that could prevent them from obtaining employment, according to the organization.
The program provides hands-on job training skills for catering and provides clients with wrap-around services and support with a five-star chef and case manager, according to the organization.Through the center's La Cocina Catering, which is a licensed on- and off-site caterer, offers a various food options and has a socially conscious mission, the funds generated through the catering and rental of the organization's Training and Conference Center are used to help the organization's mission of ending hunger in North Harford, while reducing poverty through employment training.
As an example of a success story, Castelli mentioned a former student who came into the program eight years ago.
She
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