Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.
In this episode, Ben Kinney speaks with Ken Norton, executive director of Cakeable, a Charlotte-based nonprofit workforce development program that trains adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and places them in jobs throughout the community. An Air Force veteran turned pastor turned nonprofit leader, Ken explains how Cakeable uses its cafe and coffee house on Tryon Street in Uptown Charlotte as a training ground, then graduates participants into positions everywhere from the Carolina Panthers stadium to the Delta Sky Lounge to Compass Group cafeterias. He discusses the challenges of scaling a mission-driven nonprofit, how Cakeable's social workers support both graduates and the businesses that hire them, and why the organization sees itself not as a charity but as an advocate for highly capable people who bring real value to the workplace.
