Pittsburgh’s newest restaurant will have a Pittsburgh Theological Seminary connection. Café Momentum, will offer fine dining to the public while equipping 15- to 19-year-olds who have been part of the criminal justice system. Its executive director is PTS alum Gene Walker ’20, who completed the PTS Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization (now called Adaptive and Innovative Ministry).
Gene is passionate about helping teenagers envision a future where they can thrive. For eight years, he worked for The Pittsburgh Promise, which helps public school students go to college. He is also in his first year of a four-year term on the school board for Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Providing Safe Space and Job Training
“All of [Café Momentum’s participants] will have had a criminal history, from minor misdemeanors all the way up to the most serious of crimes,” says Gene. “It’s about providing a safe space . . . where we can help work on the things that need addressed, whether it be food, housing, mental health or physical health, or job training.”
The job training comes primarily in the form of an internship that allows program participants to work in a restaurant and learn every aspect of the service industry. Café Momentum will occupy 274 Forbes Ave. in downtown Pittsburgh. The storefront next door will function as a community services center for the participants.
Balancing Accountability and Grace
That center will offer team building exercises, life skills training, and educational tutoring. A licensed counselor will be on staff. The program has three tiers, each one requiring different levels of accountability and opportunity. As a participant moves into a higher tier, they will have fewer requirements, more independence, and higher wages at the restaurant. Participants may also move back down to a lower tier if they fail to meet requirements, but are never in danger of being removed from the program entirely. The goal is to teach accountability and the reality of consequences to our actions, but to also offer a space where mistakes and failures are a chance for growth.
In addition to this balance of accountability and grace, Gene explains that the staff won’t make participants earn trust. In fact, their approach is the opposite: to come to work and try to earn the right to work with these young people.
Faith in Action
Recently, a stranger pointed out to Gene that this vision of Café Momentum sounds deeply Christian, with grace being given at the start and with unconditional love and forgiveness as central to the program.
“We are not a faith-based organization, but we will be led by faith-based principles,” Gene says. “We can do God’s work in a lot of different ways and it doesn’t necessarily have to be from a pulpit or painting Bible verses on the wall.”
He hopes that people will recognize his faith through his actions, allowing him a chance to talk about his faith when opportunities arise. Gene credits his PTS graduate certificate for teaching him how to apply this faith-based approach to a non-faith-based organization, allowing God to move and work in Café Momentum even without overt spiritual language and practices. He also believes his PTS studies helped him to discern where his skills and talents were calling him in his life’s work.
Changing Perceptions
At Café Momentum, diners will get an experience they might not expect in a fine dining restaurant. Gene explains: “Anyone who comes into our restaurant will be able to understand who these young people are . . . that they’ve had some involvement in the justice system . . . . But we’ll have an opportunity to show you that these young people are more than that mistake they made, and that what you see in the media as a depiction of youth in America is not the reality.”
Pittsburgh will be the second location for Café Momentum. Chad Houser, founder and CEO, opened the first Cafe Momentum in Dallas, Texas, and hopes to expand to more than 30 cities nationwide. Café Momentum Pittsburgh anticipates opening its doors to participants and the public later this year.