Traveon Benjamin of Dallas has worked with Aramark Uniform Services for six years. Traveon’s Aramark tenure is especially impressive when you consider that young adults hold on average five or 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 learned how to work in a commercial laundry, he enrolled in Bridges.

Bridges personnel 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 26, Traveon is a seasoned Aramark team member, working full-time with benefits and earning a competitive salary that makes a significant difference in 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.

Since 1989, Bridges from School to Work (Bridges) has worked to increase employment rates and improve career outcomes for young adults with disabilities in our nation’s largest cities and neediest school districts.

As a high school student at Excel Academy in Boston, Terence Vasquez worked part-time for two years in an AMC theatre. When he graduated in June 2021, he wanted to transition to a full-time job with advancement potential.

As part of his goal for pursuing a more career-oriented position, his Bridges Employer Representative, Sandra Meetran (right), helped Terence replace a lost Social Security card, create his résumé, fine tune his interviewing skills, and explore different job options. He was interested in travel and hospitality, so Terence and Sandra pursued opportunities at the Omni Seaport Hotel.

After Terence aced his interviews with three different Omni Seaport Hotel managers, he was hired on the spot. Since August of 2021, Terence has worked as an Omni Front Desk Agent in this 1,054-room property. He earns an excellent wage and is excited about the hotel’s advancement opportunities. In March 2022, Terence won the “Front of House Omni Service Champion” award.

Among Bridges participants, having a disability is only one of multiple employment barriers that may make it harder for them to achieve their education and career goals. Their disability can be compounded by other factors, such as the trauma of adverse childhood experiences that impede their ability to think, learn, and feel psychologically safe and secure.