ATLANTA — Downtown Atlanta is now home to a nonprofit’s restaurant that aims to give young people in metro Atlanta a second chance.
Cafe Momentum will mentor teens who need a fresh start after being caught up in the justice system.
“Being a young teenager, it had its effect on me. I was very gullible and I was easily manipulated. I got into bad situations around the wrong group of people who didn’t have my best interests in mind,” restaurant ambassador Tristyn Williams said.
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When Williams was 15, she was a single mom who took up with the wrong crowd. But then she found Cafe Momentum, a new concept in the restaurant business.
“To be here in Atlanta and to watch the community telling the first group of young people, I see you and I believe in you is incredible. The most empowering thing they can possibly hear,” founder Chad Houser said.
Houser’s mission is to transform young lives. The restaurant will be staffed almost entirely by young people who were in the juvenile justice system.
They will learn every aspect of the restaurant business and take life skills training courses. The restaurant will also offer mental health counseling.
Williams was part of the Cafe Momentum program in Dallas. Now, she’s a company ambassador who has a knack for baking.
“I’m starting culinary school in the summer and I’m hoping to land a position as a pastry chef in one of the restaurants that open in the next few years,” she said.
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