Our strategic plan for 2012 through 2014 is to provide area youth with a baker’s pre-apprenticeship training (a 600 hour program), paid on-job-learning, high school completion, permanent job placement assistance, life coaching, housing subsidies and cultural/recreational experiences.
We provide these opportunities for18 to 22 years olds who are homeless, at-risk of being homeless, unemployable, have deficient educational skills, or re-entering the workforce from detention. The goal is matriculation back into mainstream society with a feeling of belonging, and an ability to be a part of a healthy, thriving community.
The program has been in operation for a month, now, and we have alliances with the local colleges, United Way, NC Rural, LOS Regional Council, Department of Labor, Workforce in Action and local employers willing to hire our graduates!
Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments on the baked goods. We have received rave reviews on the taste of our bread. Quite a few of you have said it is absolutely the best gluten-free bread you have ever tasted….restaurants, grocers, co-ops, outdoor markets, CSAs, bakeries, pizzarias, schools, and organizations for children with special needs are placing orders because YOU have been our advertising.
We are having the usual hiccups involved in a new project, used equipment breakdowns, recipe tweaking, finding the right hours to be open, etc. But, IT’S ALL GOOD! Through your continued generous support through special donations (click on the donate link on this site) and supporting our bakery and our retailers, we hope to radically change the lives of hundreds of youth in this county and beyond. Our great wish is to not only provide young people with living (not minimum) wages, but to offer career pathways AND be able to open Generation Y enterTRAINment centers around NC and the country through servicing large grocers with our products. This is the start.
