Jeff Good posted the following message on Facebook.
Today, we have been basking in the afterglow of a wonderful night, reflecting on all the kind words shared from so many regarding our presentation on the Refill Jackson Initiative and our plans for the Refill Cafe. My thanks goes out to all who attended (145 of you!!) ... thank you for being a part of it… when community comes together, things get done.
And we are going to get this done!
We are a few short months away from opening the Refill Jackson Initiative, a workforce development program based in West Jackson, that operates in conjunction with Refill Cafe.
With planning completed, we are ready to follow through on the promises we’ve made to the community: To serve delicious, healthy food in an intentionally designed space. To revitalize a community gathering place that welcomes everyone. And, most importantly, to train and provide avenues of opportunity to our young neighbors and fellow residents of Jackson.
We know that metro area employers are ready and willing to train employees on their industry’s specific needs. However, the critical yet missing piece is an understanding and application of soft skills that are essential to both getting and keeping a job—the ability to show up on time, follow through on tasks, work well with others, and incorporate constructive criticism into job performance.
The Refill Jackson Initiative seeks to address this need by teaching essential soft skills in the classroom and training on-site in our restaurant, Refill Cafe. While the hands-on training will be in a restaurant environment, the skills acquired will be transferable across many industries, from hospitality to retail to construction. Modeled after similar successful programs popping up across the country, our evidence-based approach will address immediate barriers to success and provide a year-long commitment to our young people by extending ongoing support through paid internships, linkages to potential employers, opportunities for further education, and other services as needed.
We know that breaking generational cycles of poverty is not as easy as “just getting a job” or going back to school, especially when the individual might lack role models, reliable childcare, dependable transportation, literacy in reading and math. With the guidance and direct involvement of our staff and committed partners, our members will address these barriers so they can have the time and space to plan and work toward longer-term career and education goals.
So that's our work, and last night we shared the details of our plans with 145 community leaders. Jordan Butler, our project leader laid out the why and the how behind our work. Emily Stanfield, our administrative director shared the financial budget and the significant levels of support we have already received, thanks to the generosity and the vision of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the local leadership of Jed Oppenheim and Rhea Williams-Bishop. (And the past help of the wonderful Yumeka Rushing!).
Our Board of Directors Co-chair Carol Burger stated the case clearly for the need for this work, and she was joined by the balance of our board, Torri Nichelle, Grady Griffin, Bill Nation, Vondaris Gordon, and Caitlin Brooking as we answered all questions and made an ask for support.
You will find some pictures of the night below, as well as some slides of the Koinonia Coffee House - the physical location where Refill Cafe will be opened this fall. A rendering of our planned renovation courtesy of Richard McNeel of JBHM Architecture is also displayed. And finally, some graphic work thanks to the AMAZING skills of Vidal Blankenstein of Imaginary Company taken from our initial kickoff campaign brochure is included for your enjoyment. (And thanks to Steve Shafer of ASAP printing for the most generous gift of printing our brochures... you rock Steve!) And thank you Jonathan Lee for always being kind, being accessible, and being supportive.
Thanks to Cathead Distillery and Rich Grain Distilling Co. for their gift of spirits and to Southern Beverage Company for the same. Thanks to Hali Sappington for making the Bourbon Smash and the @BRAVO! buzz cocktails from the donated spirits....everyone LOVED them. And thanks to BRAVO! Italian Restaurant and Bar for a wonderful night and great food. Matt Mabry you outdid yourself again as did you Tanyalyn Drake Burns.
IF WHAT YOU SEE HERE PIQUES YOUR INTEREST, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS CONTACT ME. WE WOULD LOVE TO SHARE THE WORK WITH YOU AND FIND WAYS TO COLLABORATE!
Yours for a better Jackson.. .remember, Working Together Works!
- Jeff Good
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Community Leaders Push Refill Cafe Initiative
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23 comments:
Sounds like a great way for Jackson restaurant owners to use government grant money to train their workforce. Yay for taxes.
@4:19 And your problem with a trained workforce is?... The post does not specify the funding sources other than mentioning a private foundation and soliciting gifts. JPS does not prepare kids for the future with my taxes - I'll let the business community take the lead any day. Yay for Jeff!
Workforce training is a good thing and nothing is better than on-the job experience.
Good luck to all !!
I believe a number of churches have been involved in this project as well.
A few months ago I heard some of my neighbors in woodland hills taking about this at our kids st Andrews event. It sou few like a group of white guilt private school ivy league educated wanting to give back. However, after talking to Jeff about it I do think it's a huge opportunity and many people would like to have skilled training on the job. Although, we need not forget... the cycle of poverty is also linked to welfare and father less households.
There is little incentive to work as long as the "free stuff" pays more. Besides, AOC wants people to be able to choose not to work but still be paid as if they are working.
Will the restaurant interns get some "range time." (Play on words)
What a shame that the parents and all those tax dollars poured into schools don't teach these life skills.
Eat shit Kingfish. Your choice of blog posts makes you a racist with no equal.
The system has pushed all kids into college rather than trades. Vocations provide great money and most plumbers and electricians are paid much more than your average lawyer.
4:19 = 80 year old bitter troll who found the internet. Take your pills and go to bed.
Jeff Goode ain't our problem.
"What a shame that the parents and all those tax dollars poured into schools don't teach these life skills." Exactly. 27 year old here.
Potential trainees are going to come out of the woodwork for this. As soon as the word spreads that they'll get some free meals and a T-Shirt, they'll flood whatever nexus Mr. Good can rent.
For at least sixty years, 'we' have thrown untold millions of dollars at career development, workforce development, mainstreaming the marginal, work incentives, skills development, orientation to the world of work, attitude adjustment, on-job-training and teaching a work ethic to irresponsible adults. And time and again, for at least sixty those programs have failed.
Jeff Good sees himself as a democrat governor one year and the above manifesto will be read to us from the podium at the Neshoba Fair in twelve years.
Yep! Keep reinventing that same wheel...over and over and over. The only thing new is the use of a new buzz phrase - "The teaching of soft skills through an evidence-based approach". All that means is this: We still have evidence that this perpetual under-class of a sub-culture doesn't give a shit about a job, being on time or owning personal responsibility. And you can NOT teach those things to anybody over the age of thirteen.
First ask Jeff to get his hands out of your pockets.
When he’s done that, ask Jeff to give you your wallet back.
When he’s done that, ask him to use his own money to do his work.
True altruism means the giver doesn’t profit from the act.
Sounds good, like nearly everything Jeff Good promotes, but what happened to Koininia Coffee House? Didn't it have a similar mission? Seems like maybe Jeff was involved in that too, so is this more like a reincarnation of a failed Koininia? Asking for a friend.
Speaking of buzz word phrases. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot does the intentionally designed space mean in the line "To serve delicious, healthy food in an intentionally designed space". Uhhhhh isn't anything that serves a purpose an "intentionally designed space"? These community fleecers...uhhh I mean "activists and leaders", sure know how to use a lot of fluff and buzzwords to sound intelligent but they sound like a smart idiot to most.
@5:16
Leave it to Mississippi to criticize the latest fads in tax exempt do-gooder money laundering entrepreneurship.
Instead of bashing, try getting on board and opening 100 of these type of get-rich schemes.
This is why you have so much money sloshing around in places like Austin, Seattle, and Santa Clara/San Jose that have nothing to do with tech other than they are trendy eateries that attract tweets and shares.
Instead of bashing this opportunity, why not get on board and make some money? Backward hicks so full of hate you can't even see opportunity.
To the " do nothing" critics, do something ! You gripe about all the problems but present no ideas to solve those problems. Instead, you criticize those who try.
There are those of us who actually try to make our community better and think giving our time and energy to helping others is a good thing. Education and financial sustainability ( should the initial contributors drop dead) has worked elsewhere.
Trying and failing is better than never getting off your lazy ass to try.
Crab mentality is strong in Mississippi. It is why we stay last.
If you don't know what that is then you just have to watch a bucket of crabs. Observe how no crab in the bucket will allow another crab the ability to rise above and escape the bucket. However, if the crabs worked together they could all escape together.
Ultimately, the crabs infighting only benefit whoever is planning to consume the crabs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality
I honestly wish Jeff Good and his associates well. I hope this initiative is successful and generates real, tangible change in the local workforce.
2:50 - So does everybody else under the age of 32. But none of you realizes it's been tried, and failed, seventeen times in the past forty years.
Hey Louis at 8:03 AM, This IS the Koininia Coffee House location. Keep up before you criticize.
So, 6:40 steps up to admit this is only the re-naming (Good calls it re-branding) of yet another failed vision of unicorns and gold streets.
"we need not forget... the cycle of poverty is also linked to welfare and father less households."
February 14, 2019 at 7:02 PM
"We still have evidence that this perpetual under-class of a sub-culture doesn't give a shit about a job, being on time or owning personal responsibility. And you can NOT teach those things to anybody over the age of thirteen."
February 15, 2019 at 5:16 AM
Goode, and all these other 'intellectual philanthropers' need to literally adopt these folks as toddlers. That's the only way they can achieve the desired results. Just 'meeting' these people when they turn 17 or 18 is too late to affect change.
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