(Sept. 18) Look, up in Central City! It’s a job training center. It’s life-skills development. It’s a neighborhood redevelopment catalyst. It’s a really, really good restaurant. And now this Super-organization is turning 25 years old, with no Kryptonite in sight.
When Café Reconcile, on the corner of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard and Euterpe Street, hosts a “SUNday Social” mega-celebration on the afternoon of Sept. 28, it will highlight a super success story in which public sector grants, major and minor private philanthropy and free-market lessons and practices combine in one remarkable enterprise.
More simply: Yeah, this is good stuff.
Reconcile New Orleans grew from the efforts of the Rev. Harry Tompson, S.J., and parishioners Craig Cuccia and Tim Falcon of downtown’s Immaculate Conception Catholic parish. The goal was to be what its website calls “the cornerstone for the broader rehabilitation” of the nearby Central City neighborhood. Describing itself as a “non-profit workforce training program,” Reconcile takes interested 16 to 24-year-olds for internships in a fabulous lunch restaurant featuring New Orleans standards such as red beans, gumbo, catfish and po-boys.
The restaurant’s reputation deservedly is national: First Lady Laura Bush ate there shortly after Hurricane Katrina, and in 2023 the New York Times listed it among the 50 restaurants in the whole country “that we’re the most excited about right now.”
Yet the restaurant is just the first floor of a five-story building. Sandwiched between it and the fifth-floor administrative staff is a second-floor event space and catering operation; a third-floor classroom and “case management” area teaching interpersonal skills that can apply to almost any job; and a fourth-floor employment and career-readiness center that helps participants figure out and pursue their next career steps, including where to access related resources, after they complete the Reconcile program.
The program itself involves a 14-week internship (with stipend) at the restaurant followed by a full year of engagement to help graduates take their next career steps…. [The full column is at this link.]
