Youth programs team levels up

Our youth programs, Youth & Young Adult Barista and Youth Culinary, give young people a chance to choose their own path. Our students are facing poverty, homelessness and other barriers in their lives and have specific needs that adults don’t have to face.

We are always looking to improve our staffing and deepen our relationships with our partners to give as many students the best chance of success we can. 

• Brought on additional staff creating an employment specialist position.
• Refocused on building and maintaining a culture of empathy, understanding and nonjudgment.
• Conducted a staff-wide training around trauma-informed care.
• Expanded our MOD summer internship program.

These improvements will allow us to serve our students better and help them gain the skills, experience and have the additional support they need to thrive. Our partners also provide support and expertise — YouthCare for our Youth & Young Adult Barista Program and Seattle Public School's Interagency Academy & Nova High School for our Youth Culinary Program. 

Year to date, we've seen some strong results. In our Youth & Young Adult Barista Program, we've seen a retention rate of 76% this year with a 12% increase on the number of graduates compared to last year. Youth Culinary has graduated 40 students this year, an increase of more than 60% of last year's numbers! We also enrolled 16 interns this year through a combination of MOD Pizza and the Seattle Youth Employment Program - above our goals.

If you know someone who would benefit from the Youth Culinary Program or Youth & Young Adult Barista Program, please help us spread the word.