Iowa City’s ‘Jabez Cafe’ gives immigrant students with disabilities on-the-job training

IOWA CITY — A handful of City High students who don’t have a clear post-graduation path due to a range of disabilities have started working at a new Latin-inspired café created just for them — and for any member of the community keen on tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, and helping students get a leg up.

Jabez Café — named in honor of one of its first employees, Jabez Lovan, 20, of Iowa City — embarked on a “soft opening” about a month ago with four students and five parent volunteers willing to cook homemade Latin food.

The mission is to offer on-the-job training for special-need students from immigrant families in hopes of giving them the skills, experience and confidence they need to land post-high school employment.

“A lot of them have no other place to serve after they graduate from high school,” program coordinator Dayrin Lovan told The Gazette. “So I’m trying to figure out a program for these young adults that they can come to and feel like they belong to our society, and they can be included in society, and not just be in the basement and watch TV the whole day.”

Following a few weeks in practice mode, Lovan and her crew held a grand opening Thursday — Cinco de Mayo — to promote the café, open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays.

It’s located in IC Compassion’s Iowa City offices at 1035 Wade St. — in the building shared with Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene.

IC Compassion was able to launch the Jabez Café thanks to a $50,000 grant from The Amerigroup Foundation, according to Jacki Marquardt, development manager for IC Compassion.

As a longtime IC Compassion volunteer and employee with a disabled son — Jabez — and a history of working with Hispanic families and parents of disabled kids, Lovan for years had the cafe idea “rattling around in her brain,” according to Marquardt.

“These kids, these developmentally-disabled kids, they graduate high school where they’ve been getting all these supports, and then there’s just nothing,” she said. “There’s this gap.”

The concept was to train them in a safe and supportive space while in high school.

“Once they graduate from the program, they hopefully will have the opportunity then to get a reference from IC Compassion,” Marquardt said. “They have the experience and knowledge they need to be prepared for employment.”

After landing the grant money about a year ago, IC Compassion partnered with the Iowa City Community School District to coordinate transportation for participating students to the cafe during assigned work hours.

“The district pays for transportation for the paraeducator and the students to come over to IC Compassion,” Marquardt said.

Participants must have a disability of some kind and come from an immigrant family. So far, all the workers are City High students — but that’s mostly due to proximity. Other high schools could participate, according to Marquardt.

Student disabilities vary — from physical, with one needing a wheelchair, to developmental, like autism or Down syndrome. All are assigned jobs they’re comfortable with — like table and chair setup, clean up, and organization.

The goal eventually is to have them preparing and serving Mexican-style food, according to Lovan.

“Our goal in the long run is that they make the cookies and they be able to do more in the kitchen area,” she said. “So it's been taking a long time to finalize the menu and make sure the kind of food we’re serving is not too complicated for them.”

Lovan feels a deep connection to this work and its mission of propelling these students toward social and financial independence in that her son is disabled and is participating in the program.

“To have the opportunity to go out in the community for these young adults is huge for them,” she said, recalling how one student — on her first time in the café — felt frustrated and anxious. “But after the second time, she was serving … and after that she kept coming every Thursday and it seemed like she just fit in.

“That’s what we’re looking for.”

Although the program kicked off with a smaller cohort, Lovan said, interest is growing and available spaces are filling up.

Although the students don’t get paid a wage for their work — in that doing so could affect government assistance some might be receiving — compensation comes in the training, experience, references, and in some cases gift cards and other modest benefits.

Initial customers have been mostly family members and IC Compassion workers, because the café hasn’t been advertised. The “cost” of café items are “donation-based,” meaning “suggested” prices are listed on a sandwich board daily.

“The hope is with the grand opening, we’ll start promoting it a little bit more and other community members will begin to stop in during the day,” Marquardt said.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com