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The Cookie Cart contributes to the economic development of
North Minneapolis while providing quality employment opportunities
for neighborhood teens. Click here to learn more about the Cookie Cart experience from our youth employees.
Currently, the Cookie Cart has two main programs: the Bakery Program and the 360 Degree Program. In addition, it collaborates with the Minneapolis Public Schools to provide job training to young people with special needs.
Bakery Program
| The Bakery Program offers a first, paid job experience for North Minneapolis youth ages 14-17. It is an experiential, hands-on job training program. The program provides a creative teaching environment in which young people learn basic employment skills such as:
- appropriate work behavior and language;
- problem solving;
- team work;
- time management;
- taking direction; and
- seeing tasks through to completion.
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Photograph by Robb Long, Minnesota Parent |
Unlike a traditional work setting, the Bakery Program allows youth to learn from their mistakes, viewing them as teaching opportunities. Young people are also given the chance to teach each other, providing them with opportunities to hone what they have learned and develop leadership skills.
Click here to read about former Cookie Cart youth employees and what they're doing now. |
360 Degree Program
When youth employees demonstrate sufficient competence and maturity in the bakery, they can begin the 360 Degree Program, a classroom and community-based program that builds upon the skills they have already learned and offers comprehensive employment and job search skills training to help them find and keep traditional jobs in the mainstream workforce.
360 Degrees Program participants on field trip to Dunwoody College of Technology
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Working in small groups and one-on-one with Cookie Cart staff, teens identify areas of interest for potential careers, prepare resumes and cover letters, learn about job search tools and how to complete job applications correctly and practice interviewing skills. They also learn about money management and take field trips to local businesses and educational institutions, providing them opportunities to see the world beyond their immediate neighborhoods.
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Collaboration with Transition Plus Services
The Cookie Cart partners with Transition Plus Services to provide on-the-job training to secondary students ages 18-21 with various educational disabilities. Transition Plus Services is a Minneapolis Public Schools program that serves students who have completed twelve years of school but
| continue to have transition needs. These young people work at the Cookie Cart during the school day. With support and encouragement from Cookie Cart staff, they learn practical job skills that will help them achieve semi-independence in their lives. |
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