Personal Branding for At-Risk Young Adults

Curt's Cafe improves outcomes for young adults living in at-risk situations through work and life skills training.

Late in 2017 I developed a Personal Branding curriculum targeted towards the young adult trainees working at Curt's Cafe. Over the last 18 months or so I've worked with approximately 50 individuals. I've drawn a tremendous amount of inspiration from my work there. The challenges that these young adults face on a daily basis can be both heartbreaking and inspiring.

It's heartbreaking because there is so much inequity in our society. And yet these young adults show up for work at Curt's, some of them traveling over 2 hrs to get to work by 8:00am. They're working at Curt's because they've made a decision to turn their life around and take a different path. So it's inspiring to see them work so hard and struggle so much in spite of so much adversity.

Sometimes I feel my white privilege acutely, other times my I'm just in the moment, doing whatever I can. And usually it's both.