Arizona program puts blind man on path to self-sufficiency

From The Arizona Republic:

When Adam Coons (pictured) was a teenager in 1993, he was at a friend's house playing with a loaded gun and accidentally shot himself, resulting in blindness and hardship.

"I was being a stupid kid," Coons said. "But now I tell people that I don't care that I'm blind. It's more important that I'm alive."

Thanks to Arizona Department of Economic Security Business Enterprise Program, which offers legally blind people the training to become economically self-sufficient by operating food service facilities, Coons is now the manager of Phoenix Perks café in the Paradise Valley Community Center.

Until 2006, Coons was out of work and living on disability checks. Since then, he's been able to find work, but only through agencies that help the visually impaired.

"It's hard for blind folks," Coons said. "I just can't walk into a place and say that I want to be a dishwasher."

Coons said BEP gave him the business classes he needed. He started training with BEP two years ago and, after bidding for the position, took over the helm of Phoenix Perks on March 16.

Coons runs the register and manages the café. A sighted person works with him and deals with most of the food handling.

"Nobody should have a sloppy sandwich," which Coons said might happen if he were to fix one for a customer. Every now and then, he bumps up against the counter or fumbles with change, but Coons said BEP has improved his life.

"This has given me a lot more confidence," he said. "Before I didn't have goals."

One of those goals is to buy a house. His business goal is more customers for Phoenix Perks.

Phoenix Perks is part of a push by the city's Human Services Department to provide opportunities and services to a growing Baby Boomer demographic.

The Paradise Valley Community Center offers a selection of classes and programs ranging from legal rights, caregivers' support and ceramics, to re-careering and estate planning, all within a relaxed, café setting.

But as business ventures go, sometimes they need to be retooled.

When the café opened in October, the original business plan was to produce a high-end product with a Starbuck's-type branding, said Ed House, manager of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. BEP accepted a bid from Juanita Zavala, a blind vendor, whose business plan was most in line with that of BEP at the time.

"But the business plan wasn't appropriate for the facility," House said.

The high-end product wasn't producing results. Nobody was buying. So the shop closed for a couple of months, and it reopened under Coons' management.

The classes remain, the prices have gone down and sales have gone up, but House said it's too early to place judgment on Coons' performance.

Retiree Peggy Quinn is happy that Phoenix Perks is more affordable. She visits the community center on Bingo days and buys coffee at the café. She said it's good that the visually impaired have such an opportunity.

"Of course," Quinn said. "They can't just sit in the corner for the rest of their lives."