When Jesse first started receiving Clovernook services he was legally blind and facing many personal challenges. He had recently spent time in the hospital after being beaten and robbed in his home. Ultimately he lost his job, and at Jesse’s request, program services staff assisted him in getting help for his challenges. Jesse’s ongoing commitment to his rehabilitation paid off, and once things stabilized he requested our help to re-enter the job market.
The co-owner of a local restaurant gave Jesse a chance, largely because of the faith that Clovernook staff had in his potential. Jesse was hired as a prep cook. His job largely consisted of weighing out all the food portions on a talking scale. He was told that his hours would increase according to the number of tasks he could master.
Over Easter weekend 2006, Jesse didn’t show up for work, causing his co-workers and Clovernook a great deal of worry. When he appeared again a couple of days later, he walked into work and told the co-owner of the restaurant, that he was “uglier than he had thought.” While a comment like that would have gotten most people fired, as it turned out, the reason Jesse was missing was because he had been hospitalized unexpectedly for severe pain in his eyes. Emergency eye surgery was performed, and when he came out of it he had regained much of the vision he had been living without. The manager than began giving Jesse additional duties and today Jesse is the morning kitchen supervisor. He opens the restaurant, sets up, has his own key, knows the alarm code, performs cooking duties, works independently, and helps train new employees.
Jesse’s boss considers him to be his “greatest legacy” as he leaves his restaurant for another opportunity. He admires and respects Jesse for overcoming so many obstacles in his life. The restaurant co-owner has since informed Clovernook’s community employment staff that as a result of their experience with Jesse, they want to hire as many of our clients as they can!
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Clovernook Center for Blind and Visually Impaired's website has been designed to be as accessible as possible to all website visitors. As such this website has been created to be accessible to those with varying degrees of visual impairment and has been found to be compliant using the former Watchfire WebXact and Bobby systems. This site strives to be accessible to all, if you have found content that you are having difficulty accessing, please contact us at accessibility@clovernook.org and we will address the issue.