How Does Helping Youth Empower A Community?
Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z. Generation after generation. Time after time new generations arise and with each generation comes changes to life around us. And with each generation comes new inventions, change in fashion, ideas about what's acceptable in society and what's not.
This repetitive change from one generation to another reminds us of the importance of making sure that not only has your generation benefited society, but that you have also left a path for the generation to come to flourish as well. And that the new generation we help flourish is the youth, because eventually they will hold the jobs that you have now and have to make similar life decisions that you made.
It is important that communities help their youth prepare for their future when they no longer have adults to help lead them, but become adults themselves. What ways can communities help teens build a professional experience that will set them up for a better position for the future?
At Community Happens Here they have created a program for Jr. High and High school students to gain professional experience that will in return help give them a lead to strengthen their business and personal skills in society. How? Through a coffee shop.
The program is called Teen Barista. Teen Barista is an intensive business training program that gives students knowledge and skills that are transferable to many business settings.
This week I got to talk with Rachel who is 14-years-old and has gone through session one and two of the Teen Barista program.
Rachel wanted to be a part of this program because she wanted to volunteer and give back to the community. And although there are many different ways to do this, she chose the Teen Barista Program because it provided a direct way for her to interact with her community and see the impact she was having on the community right before her own eyes.
Part of Rachel’s first session in the Teen Barista program involved a brief training process but then was sent to work right away in the field because that’s where the best learning happens. She passed out coffee, popcorn, and snow cones while working at the Saturday Sidewalk Hospitality.
During this time she got lots of practice for one of the most important parts of any business, interacting and talking with people. For every person that came to her station she would strike up a conversation with them so that they would feel welcomed and loved.
Eventually Rachel moved on to Session Two of the Teen Barista program, where she had one-on-one training with a Barista to learn how to make lattes. But not only did her barista skills grow, her conversations grew as well. Through the program Rachel was encouraged to continue to interact with anyone coming inside to get coffee. And Rachel shared with me how thankful she was for the interactions that ranged from light conversations and questions, to even more deeper conversations.
Rachel is glad she has gone through the first and second sessions of the Teen Barista program, and is looking forward to session three on entrepreneurship. She is planning on becoming a barista for her first job when she turns 16.
When I asked Rachel what her favorite part of the program has been so far, she said she is most thankful for the environment. She noticed the welcoming and loving environment that Community Happens Here offered to the community.
And since part of Community Happens Here is the Teen Barista program, Rachel herself was helping create the welcoming and loving environment at CHH by providing a latte and, more importantly, having intentional conversations with everyone she interacted with.
The Teen Barista program at Community Happens Here has empowered youth in Pleasant Ridge not only in their own personal and professional growth by providing them with a business-like setting, but also in being able to better the communities they live in by providing a simple service of serving coffee and caring about the people you're serving.