Café Momentum

Meet Enrique, Senior Case Manager at Café Momentum Dallas. This week of Youth Justice Action Month is about health, hope and healing. Enrique's view from the front lines is that no one loses a job because they can't do the work. It's the unaddressed things outside of it that get in the way, which is why every Café Momentum intern has an ecosystem of support behind them: case management, mental health services, education, life skills and a space of their own. Share this post to help amplify youth voices. Support our mission: https://lnkd.in/gHF7ADvd

We’re heading to New Orleans! 💚 On October 23rd, Drive Change Executive Director Kalilah Moon will join other reentry leaders for a panel at the National Reentry Workforce Collaborative (NRWC) Annual Conference. The conversation will explore how hospitality-based social enterprises and workforce programs can create meaningful career pathways through hands-on training, skills-based hiring, and employer partnerships. Joining the conversation: 🎤 Moderator: Desire Vincent Levy — Down North Pizza 💚 Kalilah Moon — Drive Change 🍕 Muhammad Abdul-Hadi — Down North Pizza/Out West 🍴 Chad Houser — Café Momentum ✨ Kheri Billy — Reconcile New Orleans (Café Reconcile) Together, they'll highlight how mission-driven businesses and workforce programs can strengthen talent pipelines and help the reentry field adapt to the future of work. Want to join us at #NRWC2026? Learn more about the conference and register here: https://lnkd.in/ggrNqtnu

Meet Nevaeh, a national ambassador for Café Momentum and a Café Momentum Pittsburgh graduate. This week of Youth Justice Action Month, the theme is Youth Leading the Movement, and Nevaeh's story reminds us who should be leading these conversations. When asked what she wishes more people understood about youth justice, she said, "It's how lonely it feels to be involved in the system, and how empowering and life-changing it can really be for a young person when they find the right support system." Today, Nevaeh is a national ambassador for Café Momentum, growing her own story while helping other youth find theirs. That's the idea behind our Momentum Ambassadors Program. There's a seat for you too. Share this post to help amplify youth voices. Support our mission: https://lnkd.in/gHF7ADvd

This October, Momentum Ambassador Fellow, Tristyn, reflects on Youth Justice Action Month and what it really means to build a future where young people thrive. Not as a theme, but as a practice. Read this month's IGNITE here:

Meet Stephen, an intern at Café Momentum Atlanta. As part of Youth Justice Action Month, we're spotlighting a different voice each week. This week's theme is education and empowerment, and Stephen's story is a good place to start. Asked what he'd tell someone considering the program, he didn't hesitate: "You should definitely join. You're surrounded by amazing people. You never know who you're gonna meet in a restaurant, as well as on the other side. It's always good to get out of your comfort zone." That's the work at Café Momentum: paid restaurant internships where justice-involved youth build real skills alongside people who believe in their future. There's a seat for you too. Share this post to help amplify youth voices. Hear from Stephen himself → https://lnkd.in/gneitwRj Support our mission: https://lnkd.in/gHF7ADvd

Café Momentum is honored to receive Vizient's 2026 Norman Borlaug Humanitarian Award, recognizing our work alongside more than 1,700 justice-involved youth across the country. As our Founder CEO Chad Houser told the crowd in Las Vegas; this work has always been built by the young people we serve, and this Youth Justice Action Month we're inviting everyone to help them discover what is possible. Watch the whole video: https://lnkd.in/gqTaD-pP Learn more about our mission: https://cafemomentum.org/

Every October, Youth Justice Action Month (YJAM) brings advocates, families and communities together to change how we treat young people affected by the justice system. This year's theme is Building a Future Where Youth Thrive. At Café Momentum, we build that future one shift at a time. Justice-involved youth hold paid internships in our restaurants, learn skills in the kitchen and on the floor and get counseling and mentorship while they plan what comes next, from finishing high school to earning a diploma to launching a career. Why it matters: the people closest to a problem know best how to solve it. So we're listening to young people first, and we're pulling up a chair for everyone ready to build with them. Week by week this month, our interns, ambassadors, staff and board members will share what education, leadership, healing and community look like from their seat at the table. Are you sitting at the table with us? Join us: https://lnkd.in/gtsvD_rj

There are lessons we’re learning through Café Momentum's expansion and scale that have value beyond our own organization. Our Chief Strategy Officer, Olivia Cole, thinks deeply about what it takes to grow an organization like ours, not only in reach and recognition, but in the infrastructure and investment required to sustain that growth. In a new piece for Candid, Olivia explores one of the tensions we’ve experienced along the way: increased visibility can sometimes create the perception that an organization has less need for philanthropic support, when growth often requires exactly the opposite. Thank you, Olivia, for contributing what we’re learning to a broader conversation about nonprofit growth, sustainability and the realities behind the work. Read her piece, “The visibility paradox: When nonprofit success hides financial need,” in Candid: https://lnkd.in/gXzfpBzb

A very meaningful moment of the #VizientSummit was recognizing Café Momentum with the 2026 Norman Borlaug Humanitarian Award.   Their work is a powerful reminder that leadership is not always about having the answer. Sometimes it is about creating the conditions for someone else to find a different answer for their life.   Café Momentum gives young people leaving the juvenile justice system an opportunity to rebuild trust, develop skills, gain experience and imagine a future that looks different from their past.   That takes compassion. It takes partnership. And it takes a willingness to see potential.  I was honored to share this moment with @Monica Davy and @Jennifer Marsh, Dr. Borlaug’s granddaughter, and to celebrate @Chad Houser and the entire Café Momentum team.  Their work reminded me that possibility only becomes meaningful when we do something with it.   Congratulations to Café Momentum. Thank you for showing us what purpose-driven leadership looks like when it is rooted in humanity.