Press & Recognition

I still remember the unnerving sound of a metal cell door locking behind me. Through the little window, I saw a scared fourteen year old kid, alone and hopeless in a room. My life was never the same afterwards. I remember thinking as a twenty two year old rookie, “God, he’s far too young to be trapped in this story!”

 

The same themes played out again and again as I worked in the juvenile corrections system. Many of the kids had no home, no sense of belonging and no safe place. Places they called “home” were often rife with abuse and crime. No one woke up and decided they wanted to join a gang or sell drugs. They were simply suffocating as the world around them constricted and squeezed all the hope out of the room. Hopelessness killed dignity and buried it somewhere in the midst of bad choices and incarceration. My eyes were now opened to a devastating reality that I hadn’t known existed. A stirring started so deep in my soul that I knew I would spend my life trying to change this broken system and the despair it created.

 

I began asking these young people what they would need in order to leave the gangs, which provided them with a sense of support. I repeatedly heard the same answers: jobs and a sense of family and purpose. I began praying that God would give me a vision for an alternative to what the gangs offered, a legal means of making money and a community of support.

 

In 1999, I left my job as a juvenile institution officer to pursue the answer to this problem, which turnedinto a six-year journey of filling in the puzzle pieces. I moved to Guadalajara, Mexico to learn Spanish and build context for future work with many of the young people I would work with.

 

San Francisco then offered me an opportunity to run a gang prevention program with the high risk

middle school students. Abrupt cessation of funding from the state for this program set some dreams in motion that would focus on the self-dependency models of engaging youth in business. I was determined to create an enterprise that would provide jobs for these youth while generating our own revenue to help sustain our program.

 

I asked myself, “Where do people spend money in San Francisco?” The answer was easy. The City by

the Bay is known for our love of food, arts and entertainment. What if we created a dinner and

entertainment venue where the youth could be employed in all aspects of the enterprise? Learning to be hosts, servers, chefs and entertainment would answer their three basic needs: Jobs, Family and Support.This could also equip them with transferrable skills in a desirable industry. Thus the idea of Old Skool Café, a youth-run supper club was born.

 

I began to see the vision in full color, but didn’t know the first thing about starting a non-profit, much

less a restaurant. Scared and excited, I prayed for wisdom and began taking one step at a time. Financial support was minimal for the first six years, mainly because most people thought I was crazy! Many people I approached for support pointed out that nine out of ten restaurants fail. I understood that adding formerly incarcerated young people to that equation, with no work experience, did not sound like a recipe for success to potential donors. I’m sure my lack of business and restaurant experience didn’t help either! I knew I lacked experience in many areas, but I believed I could find people willing to help if I kept taking steps forward.

 

I am forever grateful for all the friends who filled in those gaps, providing advice, skilled labor and

training as we proved the model of Old Skool Café by our “pop up” dinner-show events. In 2011, after

six years of hosting Old Skool in my home, we were blessed with a subsidized rental space by two

pastors. This was a great blessing, but we still needed another miracle...we didn’t have the funds to

build out the restaurant. That miracle came in the form of three selfless friends from Alabama who put their lives on hold and helped us renovate our space into a restaurant. Our story is filled with so many amazing people over the years, who have helped make this dream possible. We officially completed the renovation and opened our doors as a restaurant on April 12, 2012.

 

We have been so encouraged by those who have told our story from the Steve Harvey Show, The Rachel Ray Show, The Chew, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, Yahoo, Edible SF Magazine, CNN

Heroes,, Fox News, Bay Area Check Please!, SF Edible, Chronicle, Chronicle, The Bay Citizen, Grub

Street, Eat Speak SF, Asterisk San Francisco, Guideposts Magazine, The Examiner, Huffington Post

and Forbes Magazine

 

I have seen that when God gives you a big dream, if you step out in faith, even when you don’t have allthe answers, you will find that anything is possible! That painful stretching that occurs when you lean outside your comfort zone to reach for your vision, builds new muscles that are critical for the

challenging journey ahead.

 

The amazing young leaders that make Old Skool Café the special place that it is, inspire every guest to believe in larger stories for themselves and what change is possible in our world. They inspire me to keep dreaming and to imagine Old Skool Café in other cities that are plagued with high rates of violence and incarceration.