Wildflyer Coffee - 2024 Mission Award for Innovation

Wildflyer Coffee exists to create employment opportunities and cultivate life skills to empower youth experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Working with youth aged 16-24, Wildflyer offers a four-month employment training program to cultivate the personal and professional skills needed to find and maintain stable employment and leave homelessness for good.
Through its multiple four-month Work and Life Skills cohort programs, up to 15 youth employees at a time work 20 hours per week in the organization’s Minneapolis or St. Paul coffee shops, where they are compensated for their time and experience hands-on skills training and coaching. In addition to their time in the cafe, they spend several hours each week developing skills that will help them succeed in long-term employment including customer service, mental health and the workplace, and financial wellness.
Through their program, youth are finding employment, leaving homelessness behind, and creating a network of support and belonging.
In the words of one Wildflyer program participant: “I honestly didn’t think I was worth much of anything before Wildflyer. But seeing what I’ve done through the short program has shown me I’m always capable of more than I think, as long as I keep going. I can do more than I can imagine.”
Congratulations to Wildflyer Coffee, the 2024 Nonprofit Mission Award winner in the category of Innovation!