DETROIT (AP) – In between getting fired from a fast-food store and publishing his first poem, Michael Dones figured he’d improve his lot by bettering his job skills – and tasting some ice cream in the process.

Dones, 20, is among the first 15- to 21-year-old Detroiters to take part in a program to help them develop job and social skills while earning a pay check.

PartnerShops, a creation of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc., are Ben & Jerry’s shops independently owned and operated by nonprofit organizations. The South Burlington, Vt.-based company waives the $30,000 franchise fee and allows nonprofits to pump revenue back into the program and business.

In return, the nonprofits – in this case Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit – agree to hire youths and young adults like Dones who otherwise might find it tough landing a job. The newest venture opened Thursday in downtown’s Compuware building.

As part of their orientation, participants receive customer-service training as well as lessons in Ben and Jerry’s history and flavors through role playing and mock commercials.

“At first I thought, Scooping ice cream? This should be easy.’ But there’s so much to know besides ice cream,” said Bridney Perry, a 15-year-old Detroit Renaissance student.

Dones, a resident of Covenant House, a Detroit youth shelter, said the training was a good fit for his personality.

“I like working with people, so I liked that we got a chance to interact with each other before we started working together,” said the aspiring poet, one of 14 students in the first graduating class.

Dones and the others will scoop Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Phish Food and other flavors in the 1,000-square-foot shop between a Borders bookstore and a FedEx Kinko’s.

Graduates are hired for four to six months, receive minimum wage and work 25 to 30 hours a week, said Shiwanda Hamilton, youth coordinator for Goodwill Detroit. Some may remain longer, but others will venture out to find different work.

The goal, said Hamilton, is to give them basic skills they can turn into further employment.

Success in the venture can help both the nonprofit and Ben & Jerry’s. But the shops, like other small businesses, face many challenges.

The biggest potential hitch is allowing social goals to overcome business goals, experts say.

“Training is a valuable thing, but businesses don’t operate to train employees,” said John Reynolds of the International Franchise Association. “They train employees to make a successful business.”

Successful ventures, Reynolds said, follow traditional business rules: start off financially sound, hire a good management team and keep the focus on making a profit. The Detroit shop has a full-time manager and will hire an assistant from the group of Goodwill trainees.

“Our interest is not just providing a service to our youth, but to make a profit that we can reinvest in our mission,” said Goodwill Detroit president Delois Whitaker Caldwell.

Like making ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s follows a specific formula when considering a partner. Organizations must be at least five years old and have an annual operating budget of more than $5 million. Groups must provide startup costs that could amount to $400,000.

Caldwell said the $400,000 figure is comparable to Goodwill’s investment but she declined to give the specific amount. Shops have varied from stores like Detroit’s to a seasonal kiosk, and average gross sales in 2002 totaled $362,606, Ben & Jerry’s said. Some locations have posted annual revenue of $1.4 million, others slightly more than $100,000.

Seven Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShops have closed for a variety of reasons, including inadequate sales and conflicts between running the nonprofit and the ice cream shop.

Ben & Jerry’s, which formed its first such partnership in 1987 in Ithaca, N.Y., currently has 12 PartnerShops in the United States and abroad, in places such as San Francisco and Ireland. The shops buy their ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s, as well as napkins and other supplies, said company spokesman Sean Greenwood.

Greenwood acknowledged the business aspect of the partnerships for both parties, but noted “it’s a very politically correct way to support a community and help a group get their cause out there.”

“It’s also a high visibility way of breaking into a community,” he said.