Old Skool Cafe

Old Skool Cafe provides young people in high-crime rate areas a one-year program which immerses participants in job training. This unique project takes place in a restaurant, providing on-site training and employment apprenticeships with job shadowing and work teams to foster supportive learning relationships. The Old Skool Life Coach leads youth in goal setting, problem solving, and tracking of milestones. The Youth-Run Supper Club is both a safe haven for youth to learn and succeed, and an incredible restaurant that satisfies both the appetite and the soul. The restaurant has youth-run managers, chefs, wait staff and kitchen staff who are trained and then inspired by the larger community surrounding them. The youth themselves, between 16-22, claim their own sense of family, purpose, reconciliation, restoration, practical skills, and even public speaking as a result. The youth are given skills and purpose; the community is given a connection and a gathering place.