Cafe Momentum
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Mission Statement
Café Momentum is a restaurant training platform that provides post-release paid internships for juvenile offenders, through which they receive intensive culinary, job, and life skills training as well as continued mentoring and support to foster successful reentry into the community. In addition to significantly reducing recidivism, we create opportunities for long-term, sustainable employment for a demographic that would otherwise continue to burden the justice system and taxpayers.
About This Cause
More than 6,300 youth enter the Dallas County Juvenile Justice system each year. Many are victims of abusive homes, inadequate education, unsafe neighborhoods, and chronic homelessness. There is a demonstrated need for programs to support this population and help them become successful adults. Without a support system and a way to legally earn money upon release, the risk of recidivism - a return to the delinquent and criminal behaviors that led to adjudication - is high. The latest recidivism rate for Texas juvenile detention centers is 36% (Fabelo et al, 2015). Adjudicated youth choose Café Momentum’s paid Internship knowing that this may be their last chance to control their own future. In addition to providing culinary training and legal employment, Café Momentum provides life and social skills training, advocacy, case management, and support, while emphasizing accountability and character development. The culinary and hospitality industry is a great fit for interns upon graduation. Our population faces systemic barriers upon reentry into society. Stigmatizations, and often a criminal record, create serious obstacles for employment in many fields. The culinary and hospitality industry is unique in that entry-level positions frequently yield upward mobility and promotion by way of experience and commitment. Café Momentum offers diversified training platforms as pathways to penetrate the hospitality and culinary industry. Our Internship places the participants ahead of their counterparts because they will not only be able to demonstrate employable skills, but they will also have experience and the capability to specialize. Our vision is to create an ecosystem of support to combat the systemic barriers our clients face and ultimately help stabilize their lives. Café Momentum’s Internship provides low- and moderate-income juvenile offenders with job and life skills training, mentorship, and employment in our restaurant at an above-minimum wage of $10 per hour. These services help them become successful adults and will break generational cycles of poverty and crime. In order to be accepted into the Internship, a youth must be between 15 – 19 years of age and must have been released from detention within a year. We work with the Dallas County Juvenile Justice Department to ensure that their probation officers refer the most at-risk youth to us. Café Momentum is not punitive in nature; these young people choose to make a yearlong commitment to our program and take the first steps to becoming successful adults. Before beginning the paid Internship, our clients must complete a nine-week Orientation program, during which our case managers assist with attaining a government-issued ID, vital documents, business casual clothing, and access to social services. Participants receive service and kitchen training with our professional staff, learning valuable job and social skills. Participants also begin Life and Leadership Skills courses, which include fundamentals such as anger management, conflict resolution, vision and goal setting, and financial literacy. Assessments are given on a weekly basis, and an average score of 70 or above constitutes the satisfactory requirement to receive a certificate for passing Orientation and continuing to the Internship. The 12-month Internship is divided into four quarters, each with a different theme (fatherlessness, trauma, identity, and graduation). Our clients utilize the skills they learned in Orientation as they work for 20 – 40 hours a week. Interns rotate through five stations in the restaurant – bussing, serving/hosting, dishwashing, kitchen prep, and the cooking line – while working side-by-side with established chefs and service leaders. Through their work, they hone restaurant, catering, and service skills while experiencing the positive benefit of interacting with our diners. Assessments are given on a weekly basis, and an average score of 70 or above constitutes the satisfactory requirement to pass the quarter. On every day that the restaurant is open, we serve a "family meal" to the interns who are working in the restaurant. This meal is often the only hot, nutritious meal that an intern eats that day, and it serves as a time for team building and fellowship. During family meal, case managers provide learning objective-based programming in the form of seminars, guest speakers, and small group discussion. Throughout the Internship, case managers continue to provide one-on-one mentorship and help with urgent needs. Life and Leadership skills classes are continued in presentations during Family Meal or in one-on-one meetings. Through group discussions, case managers address topics such as appropriate social media behavior as well as civil rights issues pertaining to current events. We also offer teambuilding activities, like trips to sporting and cultural events, helping to build a culture of trust. The vision of our case management department is to build an ecosystem of support for our interns in seven core stabilization areas: Employment, Life Skills, Basic Urgent Needs, Healthcare, Legal Advocacy, Education, and Housing. We address these areas through our own programming and also through partnerships with local organizations. As interns near completion of the program, we conduct training for job interviews, and they learn how to craft a resume. Upon graduation, we assist with job placement. Our interns graduate with a Certificate of Graduation and a professional resume with references. We have developed relationships with several major local employers for post-program job placement, including The Joule Hotel, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, The Porch of Raised Palate restaurants, and The Hilton Anatole Hotel. Our case management team continues to offer services post-graduation, and we will track each graduate's progress as they continue in their careers.