TAMPA, Fla. — Cadajah Brooks finally has a job. A really good one, too, making sure hospital rooms at the Moffitt Cancer Center are clean and perfect for patients.
"I just love it," said the woman with special needs. "Sometimes I'll talk to the patients, ask them how they feel. Make them smile."
Brooks learned and earned the job thanks to a groundbreaking partnership between Moffitt and Tampa's award-winning MacDonald Training Center, which gives people with all disabilities a big employment boost for jobs in technology, manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality.
Moffitt funded, designed, and outfitted a Skill and Simulation Lab at MacDonald that allows students to learn necessary facets of environmental services. This "eMerge Career Collaborative" gives students with special needs the chance to earn a living wage and gain more independence.
It also works toward shattering misconceptions.
"When you give someone with a disability the equal opportunity to succeed in life, contribute to society and care about others, they always will," said Karenne Levy, president and CEO of MacDonald Training Center.
For more on job opportunities for people with special needs, go here.
