All Youth Deserve To Dream
We create opportunities for justice-involved youth through an ever-expanding network of award-winning restaurants and training programs. Youth, ages 15–19, gain industry skills and a strong support system. Restaurants alone can’t transform the juvenile justice system, but they can reshape communities and futures—one meal, one person at a time.
Learn more about our model
Our Impact
Our justice system can be very messy, especially when it comes to the way it works (or doesn’t) for young people.
Despite reforms, youth incarceration remains a critical issue in the United States, which continues to have the highest youth confinement rates among developed nations. As of the most recent data, approximately 36,500 youth under age 18 are detained in juvenile facilities on any given day, a significant decrease from prior years. However, disparities and systemic challenges persist. Around 200 children under age 12 are confined annually, and some youth are still held in adult facilities, despite reforms aimed at reducing this practice.
Our Mission
Café Momentum's mission is to transform young lives by equipping our community’s justice-involved youth with life skills, education and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential.
Transforming Lives
A Decade of Hope, Growth and Impact
For 10 years, Café Momentum has empowered justice-involved youth to dream big, rewrite their stories and build brighter futures. With over 1,200 lives transformed, our work proves the power of community and opportunity.
Watch Tristyn and Chad’s story and see how your support fuels the next chapter.
10 Years of Momentum: A Bold New Vision
Today marks a momentous milestone for Café Momentum: 10 years of transforming lives, breaking down stigma and proving what’s possible when we invest in opportunity for our youth.
10 Years of Cafe Momentum
Events
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March 24, 2025 | Dallas
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March 29, 2025 | Dallas
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April 6, 2025 | Dallas
In the News
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March 7, 2025 | Pittsburgh
Get Moving to Cafe Momentum
Downtown’s nonprofit eatery has relaunched with a new staff, menu and lunch hours. When Cafe Momentum hired Fig & Ash owner Cory Hughes to serve as a culinary operations consultant last fall, it was supposed to be a temporary gig. But, he’s sticking around because he fell in love with the place. I did, too. So will […]
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March 5, 2025 | Pittsburgh
Nonprofit Downtown restaurant finds momentum with new lunch service and dinner relaunch
Café Momentum Pittsburgh marked its second anniversary on March 1 and celebrated with a relaunch and a new lunch service a day prior. The Market Square restaurant had a soft opening of that addition for two weeks. Plus a new executive chef, RC Carter, joined its team and helped create the menu for it. The Pittsburgh […]
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March 4, 2025 | Pittsburgh
Girl Scout cookies, fish fries, Mardi Gras, and more Pittsburgh food news
Café Momentum, the Market Square restaurant that provides culinary training to justice-impacted youth, relaunched with a new lunch service and a new chef. Chef Rob “RC” Carter joins as the Cafe’s executive chef. Carter formerly worked at Cioppino Restaurant and Cigar Bar, which closed at the end of last year. Originally from Detroit, Mich., Carter brings expertise in “high-end cuisine, […]
Our manifesto
Dreams are the ink with which we write our stories
We learn to dream the moment we take our first steps: We’re told we can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. That we’re limited only by what we dare to imagine, and how hard we’re willing to work for it. But for some of us, there are limits. Some of us don’t get to write our own stories.
Read full manifesto
