Homeless Teen Seizes Job Opportunity, Does So Well He Creates Jobs for Others

Nick Bayer, who owns 30 Philadelphia-area restaurants agreed to give a job to someone living at the local shelter for homeless youth.

“I told Covenant House I’d be there the next morning, and I told her to have the most hirable person ready for me,”  Bayer said. “So I get there, look in the window of this little conference room in the homeless shelter and Dante Wilson is sitting in a room by himself, in a blazer smiling… You go in thinking it will be a sad place and there is a young man by himself with a huge smile on his face. I saw him smiling, and I knew I was going to hire him.”

Nick hired Dante for one of Saxbys café’s— in Rittenhouse Square—and because Dante didn’t have job experience he started by cleaning the café and busing tables.

CHECK OUT: Wife of Maine’s Governor Takes A Waitress Job

Within a week, the manager said things were going so well that they’d decided to put Dante through barista training. A month later the team wanted to create an award for team member of the month just so Dante could see how appreciative they were of his incredible work ethic. Dante wound up winning the award seven months in a row.

WATCH: The ‘Extraordinary’ Moment When a Teen Worker Agreed to Dance With Elderly Customer

The job changed Dante’s life, but even better is what happened after a few years of this successful partnership—more homeless teens were hired and Dante became their mentor.

(READ the full story on Brad Aaronson’s blog)

MULTIPLY the Good: SHARE the Idea