Bucking the Trends and Building a Bridge to Success
As the Great Resignation continues to make headlines, let’s take a moment to celebrate a young man committed to a job he has held since finishing high school. Traveon B. of Dallas has worked with Aramark Uniform Services for over four years. Traveon’s Aramark tenure is especially impressive when you consider that young adults hold on average five to six different jobs between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When Traveon was 20 and a student at Multiple Skills Magnet Center, a Dallas vocational school where he took classes to learn how to work in a commercial laundry, he enrolled in the Bridges program, which helps young adults with disabilities prepare for and connect to competitive jobs aligned with their interests and abilities. Program staff from the Bridges program knew that Traveon would be an ideal candidate for a job at Aramark Uniform Services, where he would work as part of a large team that loads, sorts, washes, dries, and presses tons of laundry processed at the facility every day.
Dallas Bridges Director Rob Mollard says, “Traveon is one of the best workers Aramark Uniform Services has ever seen. He uses DART public transit for his daily commutes to the Aramark facility near Love Field, and he never misses a day of work. He has accumulated so much paid time off that his supervisor recently made him take a vacation.”
Now 25, Traveon is a seasoned Aramark team member, working full-time with benefits and earning a competitive salary that represents a significant contribution to his family’s overall household income. Traveon even helps train and orient new Aramark employees, showing them how to navigate the large warehouse facility that processes truckloads of laundry from area hospitals, universities, and cafeterias. “Traveon is such an asset that Aramark has recently hired another participant from the Bridges program,” says Mollard.
Allen Brown is the Director of Grants and Project Development for Bridges from School to Work. He has worked with Bridges for 19 years.
