Megan Guzman takes pride in the soap, candles and herbal salts she helps create and sell.

While she doesn’t make a profit, Guzman lights up each month at the abilities wellness shop at the Joan & Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center of Staten Island.

The market is a new part of the JCC’s Day Habilitation Without Walls, a program for people with special needs that helps them sell their handmade goods.

What You Need To Know

The wellness market is part of the Joan & Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center of Staten Island’s Day Habilitation Without Walls program

Participants are adults with special needs who learn to grow, harvest and make the products they sell

The program also focuses on helping young adults with special needs build skills, confidence and friendships

Monthly market sales support the disabilities department and fund future products

“It’s definitely skill building because it grants them the opportunity to have work-related experience, building vocational skills,” said Drita Popovic, senior director at the Department of People with Disabilities at the JCC. “It gives everybody the opportunity to shine. And I think it’s very important that every person has that opportunity to build self-esteem, to build confidence, to build friendships, to build a life that they can feel proud of.”

The wellness market is more than just a sales table.

Participants grow and harvest herbs, fruits and vegetables at the JCC’s serenity garden before transforming them into products.

Susan Larsen, the garden’s agricultural project coordinator, oversees the process.

“It means everything to me to be able to support them and help them build their lives in better directions,” she said.

The program, now in its fifteenth year, helps young adults with special needs build independent living skills and social skills.

The new market, operating once a month, is just getting started, but is already helping participants build confidence and has brought in over $1,000 in sales. That money supports the disabilities department and goes back into making the products.