SALT LAKE CITY — A local coffee shop is brewing hope for at-risk young adults.
Maud’s Cafe is celebrating two years of teaching job skills to young people experiencing homelessness.
“We teach them life skills they have never learned before,” said Tonya Montano, the cafe’s general manager. “They come with nothing behind them.”
Maud’s Cafe is made possible thanks to the Volunteers of America, Utah.
“We want to see homeless youth moving out of homelessness as soon as possible, so they don’t become chronically homeless adults,” said Kathy Bray, the president of Volunteers of America, Utah.
Everyone who works at the cafe is trying to get their life back on track.
The goal for those who enter the program is to graduate to a full-time job and experience success away from the youth resource center.
“They get jobs in all types of fields including nursing, auto mechanics and in the coffee industry,” Bray said. “They have dreams and aspirations as young people to reach goals.”
In two years, several young adults have completed the program and gone on to find permanent housing.
The cafe is open Monday through Saturday at 422 West 900 South.
