Rise Community Coffeehouse serving up hope for those seeking employment

‘Great coffee, great cause’

By Benjamin Joe

Like most coffeeshops, Rise Community Coffeehouse, at 1643 Hertel Ave., Buffalo, serves up food and drinks. But there’s something special about this café that isn’t readily apparent.

Run by volunteers Rise of WNY, Rise Community Coffeehouse is the site of an employment training program where teens and other workers can get first-hand experience behind the counter. The site also offers a “pay what you can” menu, where a donation is suggested, but no one is turned away because of lack of funds.

Michael Reid, the executive director of Rise of WNY, said there was a “lifetime” before he came to the realization he wanted to do good in a way that mirrored his faith. After working in the entertainment industry for 40 years, including Disney and Warner Brothers Studios, he’d had enough of the high stress and travel – time away from his family – and settled into a second career.

“I was laid off from Warner Brothers in February of 2019 and, although I immediately received two offers to stay in the industry, I just had enough of it. You’ve heard of the term ‘burned out’? I was burned out,” he said.

Reid accepted a job offer as the executive director of Seneca Gospel Mission, a Christian service organization serving Buffalo since 1936.

“We did a lot of work with children. Most of it is concentrated during the summer,” he said of his work in an impoverished neighborhood in South Buffalo in 2019.

Reid ran bible, summer and literacy camps, but Seneca Gospel Mission had to shift its focus as funding became sparce and families were moving from the neighborhood. Also, other organizations were moving in to serve that population, such as the Boys & Girls Club. Reid decided Seneca Gospel Mission could look elsewhere to serve Buffalo and its population.

The result was the Rise Community Coffeehouse.

While Seneca Gospel Mission had an employment readiness program, Reid realized there was a disconnect between the program and the real world. He had no success story, he said, and that’s when it hit him.

“It came to me. We’re trying to teach baseball from a desk,” Reid said. “You can teach how the game is played. You can teach the concept of the game. Nine innings. There’s an offense and a defense. There are bases. You score runs. (But that’s not enough.) … I said, ‘When our kids leave the program, can we honestly say they know how to play baseball?’ No. They’ve never thrown a ball. They’ve never put on a glove. They’ve never swung a bat. They’ve never run around all the bases.

“So, in essence, this is the baseball field.”

The idea hit the ground and has grown from its original purpose. The first business plan made at-risk teens the focus of the mission, and Rise worked with Compass House, a homeless shelter for youth.

Later, Rise worked with Jericho Road and with refugee teenagers. Of them, six teens from Angola (Africa) went through the program.

“Then, lo and behold, People Inc. comes in here one day on a field trip, just to check the place out, and they happened to be accompanied by one of their directors, who then asked about our employment residency training and who felt like there was something there for their population,” Reid said.

Rise, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, now works with nine organizations that supply it with students, including Beyond Sport Network, Community Services for Every1, Buffalo Psychiatric Center, Compass House and People Inc.

Some students have Down Syndrome or other intellectual conditions.

“In those cases, it’s not about necessarily getting them ready for traditional employment. It’s about instilling confidence, a sense of hope, teaching them to communicate and socialize comfortably,” Reid said.

Reid said the emphasis is not just in helping people get ready for a job, but to ensure those same people can “land a job on their own and are able to maintain healthy employment.”

Rise Community Coffeehouse is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. For more information, visit https://www.riseofwny.org/.