Nonprofit in Baton Rouge helps adults with special needs with job and life skills training

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A nonprofit called Redstick CARES is now catering to young adults with special needs by providing a place for them to learn and gain life skills training. 

This is Sinclair, Lela and Alex. They are members of the CARES TEAM program that assist with workplace training for young adults with special needs. 

“I like having responsibilities and also be at the market and help others,” said CARES team member Sinclair Cotter who enjoys being in the program.

Jannean Dixon, co-founder of the nonprofit, said the Cares Team helps disabled young adults find hard-to-find opportunities.

“We started looking around for other employment opportunities for these young adults and we couldn’t find anything in our community, not specifically geared towards our community members who may be on the spectrum that are finished with high school. But they’re just not quite ready to go out on their own quite yet. So we work on building those pre-employment skills here,” said Dixon. 

Training consists of many forms, such as learning how to cook and sell plates with a chef, learning creative life skills with training from an artist and also learning how to do graphic design. 

CARES team member Lela Parker has started a cotton candy business at the monthly Red Stick Farmers Market and hopes to do more. 

“Tons of kids come to my booth a lot. We’re starting to expand with rock candy and snow cones,” said Parker with excitement. 

Along with Parker, Sinclair has also been selling in the market, which allows her to showcase a tea recipe from her grandmother. 

Besides training, the program has established a partnership with local businesses to assist young adults with continued support. Dixon said they are always searching for local businesses to help. 

“If there are business owners out there who are interested in partnering with us, we would love to hear from them and love for their business or industry to become a part of our community. And then that way that opens up additional opportunities for our existing peers,” she said. 

For more information on the CARES program, click here.