On my first day working as a volunteer at Curt’s Café, a non-profit training program for at-risk youth, I washed dishes for almost four hours. I was hooked.
The dish sink at Curt's is the nerve center of the Cafe. It's where I connected with the students. Everyone opens up and talks about anything and everything while they do the dishes. Plus the sink is between the kitchen and dining room so things are popping all around you the whole time. Needless to say it was a lot different than my job where I sit at a desk basically figuring out math and logic problems 24/7.
I consider myself to be very fortunate. I have been a financial advisor for over thirty years, and took advantage of an opportunity to take a six-month sabbatical. This is a common practice of educators and clergy, but rare for professionals. I'm a logical guy so before I started my sabbatical, I made two lists of activities to consider. The first was of things I had been doing my whole life that I wanted to do more of --competitive tennis, jazz saxophone performing and recording, working out, and anything else with my wife and three daughters.
The second list was made up of new things I wanted to add to my life. Other than reading more novels, taking Internet college courses, and sleeping more, I decided to volunteer somewhere to help minority youths. I got lucky. I wandered into my neighborhood's Curt's Cafe during my first week off, and the very next day I was working in the middle of the organized chaos of a restaurant, catering service, and social service agency.
I started to get to know the staff, students, and other volunteers, and they immediately accepted me into their community, which was different from anything I had ever experienced. For every job I did at the café I had a student partner in order to have as many “teachable moments” as possible. We could open up to each other while repairing a door, doing a catering delivery or just washing those dishes.
I quickly learned that Curt's is fueled by volunteers and community support. Susan Trieschmann, the founder and Executive Director, opened Curt’s (Cultivating Unique Restaurant Training) two years ago with her own hard work, experience, and money. She and her small staff and more than 25 volunteers train students in culinary technique, high school academics to pass the GED, life skills, and job readiness. Thirty-five youths have completed the program so far and all but a few are working at jobs around Evanston at places like Starbucks, Office Depot, Edzo's, and Northwestern University.
One of the things that was great about my role as volunteer is that my work at Curt’s changed every day. Susan would prepare lists of assignments for me. The students would see me jump into projects without being asked; especially if it meant helping someone else. This behavior becomes infectious. My tasks included washing dishes, food preparation, cooking, baking, repairing everything in sight, and packaging and delivering large catering orders.
After my first month, it became apparent to me that Curt’s needed some financial controls and strategies. Together Susan and I computerized the revenues and accounts payable, installed a modern point of sale terminal, Streamlined food orders, eliminated bank fees, and reviewed the insurances.
There has been tremendous improvement in a short period of time, but we still have work to do in marketing, fundraising events, and grant writing.
The survival of any enterprise depends on the efforts of its people and its financial resources. Nonprofits need donations of peoples’ time and money, and Curt’s is no exception. The costs of opening and operating a restaurant are very high. Fixed costs including rent, utilities, salaries, and insurances are added to variable costs of daily food deliveries, ingredients, and packaging. Curt’s also pays a daily student stipend and there is a separate fund to help students with other needs (like emergency housing, a new suit for an interview, or eyeglasses).
The most important characters in this story are the kids. They start by being welcomed into a loving and supportive environment. Of course they are expected to get up to speed with the program quickly. Rules are enforced like showing up on time ready to work and no distractions (like cell phones). Most of them start with no confidence and low self-esteem. They don’t speak clearly or make eye contact.
Some of these kids have had a very rough start. The nature of their crime is not important. The students realizes that they have been given a second chance, and it could be lost if they revert to old behaviors.
The most exciting part of Curt’s is watching each student grow in their confidence and abilities over the three months they are in the program. They can perform and manage every aspect of the café and have more poise and social skills. All of this effort is in preparation for job interviews. Hats off to all of the local employers who hire Curt’s’ kids fully aware of their criminal records. A few weeks ago three students graduated from the program and got great jobs (Chef, construction, counter service, and a security guard).
“Teaching moments” work both ways. I taught Curt’s kids about taking initiative, customer service, repairing anything, jazz, making bank deposits, basic accounting, and the stock market.They taught me about the harshness of their lives, frustration and anger, technology, rap, and more than I wanted to know about tattoos.
As a volunteer it was easy to see the need for support and untapped potential in our students, and understand why Susan was compelled to open Curt's Cafe. Her background is a very long and successful career in catering, first at the Pump Room in Chicago, and then the prestigious “Food for Thought” catering company. Susan was also one of the founders of Restorative Justice Evanston, a non-profit that “works with youth and community on peaceful dialogue around harm caused, celebrations, and conflicts.”
She had seen a pattern in kids getting arrested because they had nothing better to do. They had few resources and limited options available to them. After any confinement they had very little chance of landing a (entry level) job. Many of these kids end up living on the streets and return to destructive habits. Most of those released (82%) are back in the court system within a year.
This result is bad for everybody. It is more expensive for a taxpayer to incarcerate a youth than to send him or her to a private university. Susan explains “For our sake and theirs’ it makes sense to direct these young people toward a secure and productive future, where they can contribute to their community instead of undermining it. These young people all identify one essential thing that would help them turn their lives around: a job.”
That's where Curt's Cafe can help. I know because I've seen how it works and even though I an headed back to my day job and won't be doing dishes at Curt's I will stay connected to the organization. I'm leaving the sink but I'm joining the Board.
