- This is Northwest Public Broadcasting Weekly News Now.

I'm Johanna Bejarano.

And today, it's time for a community spotlight.

I am with Sara Howe.

She's the philanthropy officer with Columbia Ability Alliance.

Sara, thank you for joining us.

Tell us about Columbia Ability Alliance.

- Yes, absolutely.

So we are a locally grown 501(c)(3) right here in our community.

We've been in existence for over 60 years.

We primarily focus on services for the disabled in our community, but we also give employment services and all kinds of things for folks that just need a little bit of a leg up in this world.

- Sara, one of the programs is Opportunity Kitchen.

Could you tell us about Opportunity Kitchen and who can participate in this program?

- Yes, absolutely.

So Opportunity Kitchen is a 12 week course.

Its vocational skills training and also as our chef likes to call it, ‘life skills and knife skills.

So it's improving skills in a commercial kitchen setting and also providing life skills for greater independent living to our students.

When they finish the course, they do graduate with a food handler's card and during the program, they get the exposure to point of sale as well as commercial kitchen cooking so that they're ready to enter the hospitality environment.

- What kind of individuals do these programs help?

- Yes, absolutely.

So the individuals that are assisted by this program come from a variety of backgrounds, some from the justice system, some of our disabled community members, some folks coming from backgrounds of domestic violence.

It's really anyone in our community, including immigrants, with a different language barrier, that may need help entering the community workforce.

- If someone wants to know more about Columbia Ability Alliance or Opportunity Kitchen, how can they contact you?

- Yes, absolutely.

So they're welcome to see our website, ColumbiaAbilityAlliance.com.

And we do have a tab under our programs for Opportunity Kitchen.

There's a form right there that if individuals interested in participating in the program they can fill that out.

It goes directly to our support system and we can go from there.

- Sara, thank you so much for joining us today.

And to our audience, don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.