Raul Madero works the busy lunch line at Dan’s Cafe, located at 538 Lafayette. Madero has had some challenges, "but never threw his hands up," says owner Dangure Robinson Jr.

-- Ledger Photo: Lyle Graves

Raul Madero kept getting in arguments at work and, as a result, losing jobs.

The 35-year-old says he battles bi-polar and attention deficit disorders, but he wasn’t consistently taking medications to help.

“I always jumped from job to job to job to job,” he says.

He also has a DUI conviction and was convicted of a sex offense in 2009.

Not surprisingly, finding consistent work proved impossible.

A psychologist referred Madero to Park Center a couple of years ago, and he began to work a program of recovery that started with him consistently taking medication.

Madero also received job training, interview skills and a much better disposition.

All that led to him landing a job with Dan’s Café, 538 Lafayette St. near downtown, a job he has had for a year.

“This kid had a very warm spirit,” says Dangure Robinson Jr., the restaurant owner who has had a 14-year relationship with Park Center.

“I had to dig every day. We all hide things. That’s our nature. I realize none of these people are saints,” Robinson says. “But Raul, I felt good about him. Just a feeling. I went with my feeling.”

Raul started out cleaning, scrubbing, working in the back, and it was tough for him at first to remember things from one day to the next, sometimes from one moment to the next.

“But he never threw his hands up,” Robinson says. “He kept trying.”

Robinson also never gave up and, eventually, Madero’s improving disposition earned him a spot in the front of the house at the meat-and-three.

“He had a very pleasing personality, soft spoken, he had a smile all the time,” the boss says.

Madero fell on some ice and broke a bone, sending him back to the back of house for a while after some time off. But he has worked his way out front again.

“It’s been a good year, some twists and turns, but it’s been a good year,” Robinson says.

Madero says he is grateful for the money in his pocket, for the support of the Park Center staff and for Robinson’s experience working with other employees with mental illness.

“Dan has worked with Park Center a long time, and he knows what to expect from employees and they know what to expect from him. He knows how to treat Park Center employees,” Madero says.

The worker has another reason for catching the bus from the Rivergate area to go to work every day.

“Catfish, mac and cheese and white beans and coleslaw. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Catfish, it’s seasoned, real homemade taste. It’s probably better catfish than you can find anywhere else.”