Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh

The mission of Café Momentum Pittsburgh is to transform young lives by equipping our community's justice-impacted youth with life skills, education, and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential. As we strengthen our presence in Pittsburgh, our primary goal is to build a sustainable model that provides justice-impacted youth (ages 15-19) with the holistic support they need to truly thrive.

Our innovative approach to rehabilitation empowers justice-impacted youth through culinary training, mentorship, and job placement opportunities. Set in the Café Momentum restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh, our interns learn every station of a casual fine dining restaurant, get back in school; address critical housing, food, and medical needs; and access counseling and other supportive services. They also gain a loving community of support that believes in their potential.

Our approach is truly unique, not just in who we serve but in how we do it. We focus entirely on justice-impacted youth, allowing us to create targeted services tailored to their specific needs. And we have fun: through our restaurant internship, our youth are building positive connections and friendships with other young people and our caring staff of adults who serve as role models, all while learning critical job skills. These relationships-alongside gaining job skills and experience, earning an industry-recognized credential and a high school diploma, making post-secondary plans, and forming new self-confidence-position our youth for a new level of success that will sustain them far into their futures.

Testimonials

One of our interns says he loves everything about the program, which has given him a positive, new self-identity to build on. In his words, prior to Café Momentum he was "not actually being my potential and getting in trouble." Now, he says, "[I am] kind of glad I had to take that route to find out who I am as a person. I found out I'm meant to be someone better. I found that with this program."

As one intern describes: "When I came here I was homeless and in the streets. Now I am back home, just graduated [high school] and ready to go to college. All my friends is locked up and Cafe makes me know that there's more for me and this is just family."