At 13, Reggie’s life was on an upward path. He was making good grades, working hard on the football team, and surrounded by encouraging peers. Then his mom got sick. His dad lost his job. His family was evicted from their home, and Reggie was cut from the football team. 

“Losing what you love can cause you to spiral,” he later said. That spiral of anger and confusion led him to get involved with violence and drugs, landing him in the juvenile justice system. Once there, he regretted his mistakes and wanted to change things for himself and his community in Atlanta, but he didn’t know how. 

This is how Reggie discovered Café Momentum, a five-star restaurant that empowers justice-involved youth to build a brighter future. The organization, with locations in Dallas and Pittsburgh and an upcoming opening in Atlanta, provides yearlong paid internships in every role needed to keep the delicious food coming for appreciative customers. While on the job, youth ages 15-19 also work with case managers to access stable housing, life skills courses, education, mental health services, and whatever else they need to break the cycle of incarceration. 

Through an internship with Noble Truth Project’s Glaciers Italian Ice program, a Café Momentum partner, Reggie is now earning a reliable income, learning concrete skills, and growing a dream. He plans to open his own restaurant in Atlanta one day and pay his experience forward. 

“With Café Momentum, I’m learning how to communicate, manage and operate a business, and, most importantly, be a good man who provides for my family and contributes to this city,” he said. 

As Café Momentum Atlanta prepares to open, its leadership team has worked closely with local leaders to ensure the restaurant meets the community’s unique needs and addresses its specific challenges. Award-winning chef Chad Houser, founder and CEO of Café Momentum, chalks this up to a simple but powerful formula. 

“We get it stuck in our heads that we’re supposed to have a silver bullet solution or we’re supposed to know all the things that are going on,” he said. “The reality is that showing up and listening is the most important thing that happens. We still do it today, whether it’s expanding to Atlanta or here in Dallas. Every day, every member of every Café Momentum team across the country — they show up, they listen, they respond.” 

Café Momentum does more than provide a job. It uplifts every part of a youth’s life

Like Reggie, many recently incarcerated youth have the drive and talent to contribute to their communities, but they lack the opportunity. After release from incarceration, many don’t have stable housing, a high school degree, a supportive community, or other basic elements needed to secure steady employment. Without this foundation, it’s all too easy to end up right back in prison. 

“Anywhere from 60-80% of adult inmates in this country started off with a juvenile record,” Houser said. “The system is not designed to let them out. Sometimes, it’s not the choices people make; it’s the choices they’re given. That goes back on us, too. Why are we not providing our children with better opportunities and choices?”

Café Momentum offers youth those choices and opportunities. Internships span nearly every aspect of running a successful business, from cooking to marketing to management. Participants can take financial literacy or parenting classes, attend therapy sessions, receive support with education and professional networking, or focus on other personal needs.

After they complete their yearlong internship, they are assisted in landing full-time jobs, whether at Café Momentum or one of its many partner organizations, including Noble Truth Project, Amazon, and Starbucks. 

Working with managers one-on-one, each intern has opportunities to identify their unique struggles, interests, and goals and to rebuild their lives on their own terms. This can make all the difference between becoming an active member of the community and living a fulfilling life or ending up incarcerated again. 

Café Momentum Atlanta will open on Peachtree Street on March 27. This expansion is important for organizations across the country because Café Momentum is providing guideposts for other groups that also want to create positive change in their communities. This new restaurant offers unique insights with important lessons for others to adopt, regardless of location. Those closest to the problem are often the best equipped to create effective solutions.

Building change from the ground up

Why did Café Momentum choose Atlanta? 

“We want to be in Atlanta because Atlanta wants us to be in Atlanta,” Houser said. According to recent numbers from the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, 52,000 young people in the state end up in jail or on probation each year. 

“It’s a lot of potential left behind bars,” Reggie said. 

The restaurant’s model of designing a community-informed solution can have dramatic impacts on activating that potential. At its Dallas and Pittsburgh locations, 93% of interns are making progress academically, all now have bank accounts and are working toward building credit (compared with only 25% at the start of their internships), and 85% are in compliance with any court orders they’ve received. 

Café Momentum’s model is working elsewhere, but in order to make meaningful change in Atlanta, the restaurant’s leadership needed to listen and understand the needs of the local community. 

“We spent almost two years building relationships, understanding the issues, and talking to folks about our model,” Houser said. “We made sure there was alignment in what the community needs were and what we could offer by way of support.” 

Café Momentum’s Atlanta team worked with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, the Greater Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and longtime Atlanta residents to examine what the community needed that was different than other models in other cities. 

“Communities are not monolithic,” Houser said. “We go in understanding that we built this model in Dallas, we built this model in Pittsburgh, but we’re not trying to build the exact same model in Atlanta.”

Though certain core tenets are needed universally — such as social case management, education, mental health, and professional development — in Atlanta and elsewhere, “We’re trying to listen to the community,” Houser said, and pinpoint what is most important to them.

It started with the location. 

Houser described the process of finding a location as a “very unscientific algorithm” that involves a deep understanding of each community. “By and large, restaurants are going to look for the hip area, the area that’s driving so much traffic and people that are going to fill the seats at their tables and bring in a lot of revenue,” he said. 

Café Momentum’s Atlanta location needed a different approach. The board considered a few sites that may have worked for a for-profit restaurant, but all of them were far from any bus stops. For many in the local community, the bus is the only means of transportation. 

“You have to ask yourself a really simple question,” Houser said. “‘Would I be willing to walk from a bus stop to work for over half a mile in August or in January? Or during the spring, when it’s raining all the time?’”

With guidance from local community members who understand Atlanta’s unique needs, the Café Momentum team secured a location across the street from a major train station.

Revenue is also a key factor, Houser explained. His team strategically chose this location because it is also surrounded by hotels, businesses, and the Atlanta Hawks’ offices, ensuring a built-in customer base. This approach balances accessibility with financial sustainability while giving interns experience working in a bustling area.

“We want our young people to be in a full place,” Houser said. “Every night in the restaurant, every guest that’s dining in the restaurant is sending a message to our young people that they believe in them, that they matter.”

When youth leave the justice system for good, everyone wins

Café Momentum Atlanta’s opening has not been without challenges. 

“There’s a natural reaction of, ‘Who are you? What are you doing? You’re not from here. How do we know that you’re altruistic? How do we know that you’re authentic and sincere and genuine?’” said Houser.

By actively collaborating with local Atlanta residents — not just working on their behalf — Café Momentum is set to open a new location that will empower Atlanta youth to pursue their dreams and break the cycle of incarceration.

These changes don’t just impact the youth working at Café Momentum. They benefit every member of a community, whether or not they know someone involved in the juvenile justice system. 

“Everybody is affected by the criminal justice system, indirectly or directly,” Houser said, pointing out that besides using taxpayer dollars, juvenile justice also has direct impacts on crime rates and poverty. “Criminal justice is a machine in our own communities that ultimately affects us all because it creates an environment for our young people.” 

But when the people in the environment visibly and vocally believe in its young people, whether inside a Café Momentum restaurant or elsewhere, it can make all the difference in the life of someone like Reggie. 

Once Reggie completes his internship with Café Momentum, he’ll work with the restaurant to find a permanent job. This puts him in a position to give back to his community. 

“My message to the youth of this city is that even if you’ve been cut from the team, have a history of cutting class, or are in trouble with the law, your life isn’t decided,” Reggie said. “Find someone who believes in you. If you can’t, know that I believe in you. Because I’ve done it. I’m going to fulfill the dream that started with my dad. I’m going to be a chef.” 

Interested in trying Café Momentum - Atlanta? Reserve a table here.

Café Momentum is supported by Stand Together Foundation, which empowers individuals to reach their full potential through community-driven change. 

Learn more about Stand Together’s efforts to build strong and safe communities and explore ways you can partner with us.