Statements

Mission

Cafe Momentum Nashville's mission is to transform young lives by equipping justice-involved youth with life skills, education, and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential.

Background

Cafe Momentum Nashville got its start at Cafe Momentum Dallas, a restaurant and culinary training program founded in 2015 to serve youth exiting detention facilities. The Momentum Model breaks stereotypes, builds advocacy, and creates opportunity for youth through paid culinary workforce development. Feasibility for Nashville began in 2019, and in 2021 our founding Executive Director was hired and Cafe Momentum Nashville was established. In 2022 we introduced a shortened version (8-10 weeks) of the twelve-month internship, which was extended in 2023 to a tiered program through which interns complete a paid training program and are promoted into culinary work opportunities.

Impact

Cafe Momentum Nashville breaks stereotypes, builds advocacy, and creates opportunity for justice-impacted youth through a paid culinary workforce development program. Wraparound support for each intern includes assistance with basic food and housing needs, access to healthcare, counseling, and extensive education support. We also provide ongoing case management for each intern, maintaining regular communication with each young person, their parent(s) or guardian(s), their school and/or employer and any necessary service providers.

Cafe Momentum Nashville works with youth aged 15-19 who have had some form of justice system involvement - e.g., truancy, ISS, expulsion, detention center, group home, probation. We began an eight-week mini-internship program in January 2022. In 2023, with the growth of our catering efforts, we began expanding the program into a tiered model that provides work opportunity and support for interns through age 19. Interns now complete their initial eight weeks of paid training and are promoted into higher paid work opportunities in support of our catering and events. Interns are later eligible for additional promotions, which include higher pay rates and/or placement with an external employment partner. We continue to provide case management for the young people through all tiers, and we provide support for employment partners to ensure a mutually-beneficial relationship with the business and any young people they employ. A primary goal of this work is to create a full ecosystem of support for each young person - the sort of ecosystem that all young people need to thrive.

Needs

In 2024, we are targeting operational revenue of more than $600,000:

1. We are fundraising to support our 2024 internship program, providing our youth with uniforms, meals, assistance with transportation to and from the program, along with the vital living wages for their work at catering services and pop-up dinners.

2. Additionally, funds are needed to support operational and capacity building costs such as critical staffing to assist with intern case management, build our employment-partnership pipeline, provide education support, and conduct post-program follow-ups, greatly expanding our capacity to serve more interns over time.

We are further targeting pledges of $2,000,000 in capital support for the build out of the restaurant.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Youth Development  - Youth Development Programs
Secondary Category:	Employment  - Job Training
Tertiary Category:	-

Areas Served

TN - Davidson