The Energy Cafe, Inc.
The Energy Cafe
Note: Voting has ended and winners will be announced on December 1st at Metro United Way’s Community Pep Rally!
Description of the Innovation:
1. Summarized— The Energy Café Inc. is dedicated to providing high quality food and beverage products at affordable prices for and by school-age youth and their families.
2. What makes it unique—The energy café is a small business that started from the ideas and suggestions of teenage youth, teachers, and parents that offers solutions for everyday issues affecting these groups and is designed to actively engage the youth, educators, and parents in all aspects of business development and operation. This innovation is effective in uniting these three parts of community. The building process provides community leaders an opportunity to interact with the local youth; ideas of the young people and the skills of adult professionals are used cooperatively, thus giving both groups an opportunity to know and inspire one another. In the operational phase, the café provides the local youth a safe place to gather that is designed to appeal to their interests and their well being. Families and community members enjoy the ambiance of the café, knowing it represents the unity of our community and the empowerment of our young people .
3. Project plan—The first Energy Café has been operational since June 5th, 2008. With one year behind us, we now have a quality system for operation and sales. We have established the most productive vendors for our goods, and have reviewed the construction plan for efficiency. It is now time to package the concept for other areas, and to structure the non-profit foundation to assure and oversee the integrity of our mission as we move into other areas. Additionally, programs and activities designed for families and young people are soon to be introduced, and a scheduled event calendar for the café is being developed. The café owner has begun seeking collaboration with organizations with like-minded missions and philosophies in order to assure a forward movement for this concept and the expansion of the innovation into other communities.