Connect-Relate-Network

How Coffee Helps Homeless Youth in Kitsap County

On December 18 at Connect-Relate-Network, our guest speaker, Michele Lewis, inspired us with the good work Coffee Oasis does in Kitsap County. Michele is the organization’s director of community relations. The non-profit provides resources, services and job training for homeless and street youth. And it provides delicious coffees and teas any of us can buy!

Michele and Mary discuss how Mary’s networks can support Coffee Oasis’s work in the community

Pictured here is Mary West, founder of Connect-Relate-Network, talking with Michele about how to get Mary’s networks involved in making our community a better place by working through Coffee Oasis to help Kitsap County’s young people. Mary keeps service to community at the heart of everything she does. She believes that our businesses will prosper more when our community does better.

Every month, on the third Tuesdays, we hear a speaker from a non-profit or service organization to strengthen our connection to our community.

Interconnected Programs to Help At Risk Youth

Coffee Oasis runs four interconnected programs:

• Street Hope: meeting the kids in the streets and schools – wherever they are – encouraging them to connect with an Oasis Center where they get access to resources, support and safe relationships.
• Oasis Centers: provides homeless and street youth a safe place to find basic necessities, activities, field trips and camaraderie.
• Partnering Hope: provides support and mentoring to kids who have come in through the Street Hope and Oasis Centers programs. Here they connect with a case manager who offers support for goal setting, tutoring and mentoring. The teen must commit to meeting obligations to stay in this program and benefit from it.
• HOPE INC: teams up with businesses to give on-the-job training, open to youth who are already active in Partnering Hope.

A Model for Others Near and Far

Michele told us that Coffee Oasis current programs emerged from an in-depth study of the problems confronted by homeless and street teens. These programs have produced results and are becoming models for similar programs around our region. People concerned about youth in nearby places like Sequim and Port Townsend, and in places as far away as Spain’s Basque region, have called on founders Dave and Cindy Frederick to teach them how to set up similar programs.

Supported by Donations and Self-Supported by Business

Coffee Oasis is supported by generous donations from individuals, by grants and by income from The Coffee Oasis businesses. They sell direct trade coffee (roasted in their own roasters) and teas you can buy to brew at home. You can also get drinks and food items in their coffee houses and express locations in Bremerton, Port Orchard and their newest in Poulsbo. All of these places also have Oasis Centers for teens. Find out more at The Coffee Oasis. Buy superb coffees and teas to support the business that supports these great programs.

Connect-Relate-Network

If you weren’t at this meeting, you missed an excellent program that included a fun networking exercise after Michele spoke. We got to start digging in deeper to get to know each other’s businesses.

Don’t miss out on all that Connect-Relate-Network has to offer for both your business and the community where you live and work. Our next meeting is January 15 at the Subway in Silverdale, 5:30-6:30 pm. (We normally meet on the first Tuesday of the month, but we’ll take the evening off to observe the holiday on January 1.)

As always, contact Mary for more information about Connect-Relate-Network events and membership. Email mary@marywestnetwork.com or call 360-509-3784.

by Elena M. Rodriguez, Pacific Press International