More than knife skills

June 28, 2019

“Without FareStart, I’d still be a tumbleweed. I didn’t have a foundation on which to build, but Life Skills class taught me about having a power team and staying in my own lane.”

For many of our students, enrolling at FareStart is a way to pause, reflect and reset. Some are coming in from incarceration while others are fighting homelessness. No matter where they begin, we know that FareStart can set them on a path to where they want to go and we accomplish that not only through teaching culinary skills and job training, but through our Life Skills curriculum in our Adult Culinary Program.

Life Skills is taught in a classroom setting and it follows them through the entire program. In the classes, they see and hear inspirational stories about people who have overcome barriers, bad life circumstances and in some cases choices to be successful. The classes are structured through lectures, videos, articles, exercises and discussions that allow people with different learning styles to find a way to connect to the material.

We also have a philosophy that runs through our Life Skills classes and our training in the kitchens that no matter where someone is on their journey they are worthy of respect. We all have different ways of seeing things and different backgrounds and we should respect that by not prying, not judging and working together as a team to get tasks completed. It stops potential drama in its tracks. This photo is displayed at FareStart all throughout the organization of the Director's chair with a quote "I am the writer, producer, director and star of my new life."

Oftentimes, our students have been in situations where they felt they didn’t have any control or have not had the opportunity to stop and breathe and evaluate their own emotions. Some of them have been outside on their own for a while or in places where they had to hold their emotions in to protect themselves. Our Life Skills classes give them that opportunity to explore and reconnect in a safe, guided process. 

“When I first came to FareStart, I didn’t know where to start,” Joanie, an Adult Culinary graduate said. “Life Skills gave me a place to start interacting with people again.”