The American-based company Wildflyer Coffee offers youths experiencing homelessness a chance to change their life, and uses coffee as the vehicle. Through their nine-month Youth Development Academy, participants receive employment training in the coffee sector, and after that, the “youths are eligible to receive a year of post-program follow-up,” which includes having a job placement.

“We’re opening a brick and mortal location for two main reasons,” Co-founder Griswold said, “A retail location would allow us to hire three times more youths per year than we can hire now. And our youths want to work more and we want to give them that opportunity.”

Currently, Wilflyer operates at the Fulton and the Linden Hills Farmers Markets. But not for much longer, as Wilflyer has announced that they are looking for a permanent storefront to better serve the youth who complete their training, and they have also announced an IndieGoGo campaign to help fund their forthcoming programs.