Finding great coffee in Pasadena is easy. But every cup brewed at Rosebud Café on East Colorado Boulevard comes with a unique measure of hope. Coffee With a Cause, the social enterprise that runs Rosebud, is a training ground for at-risk youth experiencing foster care, homelessness or struggles with the justice system.
One of its biggest successes is Trinity Casey, 22. Growing up in Pomona, she struggled with depression and was living in transitional housing at Hillsides in Pasadena when she discovered Rosebud Café. By then, the initiative had grown from a coffee cart at Rose City Church to a storefront in a 99-year-old building.
“Trinity brought a lot of life to this space,” Coffee With a Cause founder Dan Davidson said. “She picked up coffee fast and is very gifted, we always enjoyed her happy personality.” So much so that Casey is the newest member of the nonprofit’s board of directors, which includes executives from Starbucks, a project partner.
Over a cup of her go-to cinnamon honey latte, Casey said she trained and worked at the café before moving on to a job at Starbucks in Koreatown, where she had found a studio apartment. She’s excited to use her story and perspective to help the cause. “I feel I have a lot to contribute,” Casey said.
“I’d love to be hands-on in training youth and giving them tools I learned here.” Also on the board is Jennifer Vanderpool, district manager at Starbucks. She said transformative partnership filled a gap in the coffee chain’s advocacy helping at-risk young people.
“We were getting trainees with real-world experience, how simpatico can you get?” Vanderpool said. “Trinity is a perfect example of what we want to replicate, proof of what’s possible. She has such a bright future at Starbucks.
” That future’s origin story starts with Dan Davidson, who was a pastor at Rose City Church when he got an idea in 2012 to help homeless young adults. “I had no idea how deep and big and systemic their struggle is,” he said. “I believe in social enterprise.
It’s such a joy. We wanted to create this safe place where their life experience makes all the difference, where they can earn money and take on responsibility in their lives.” Davidson, of Arcadia, worked with local businesses to give 16- to 24-year-olds skills and hands-on experience in a myriad trades, from the barista training program to landscaping, construction, information technology and retail.
Participants are matched with mentors and work paid internships. The shop opened in 2017. The coffee cart is still making its rounds too.
So far, Coffee With a Cause participants have been hired within three months of completing their training. The Starbucks connection spotlights the group’s mission to “crafting coffee, community and cause,” Casey said. “The hardest part for me was getting used to structure and processes, thinking since I was a just go-with-the-flow kind of person, I could come in late,” she said.
“The people I meet, the regulars who come in, seeing them smile after that first sip, those are my favorite parts. Extending a hand and acknowledging a person is there, that can save a life, even if it’s just someone getting your name right when they call out your coffee order.” She still enjoys learning her robusta from arabica, and perfecting the beauty of roasting, grinding and pulling espresso.
(“I could talk coffee all day,” she said.) But brewing meaning into her java life is extra sweet. “This (work) is a future and not just a job,” Casey said.
“(Success is) doing what you love and being happy, being surrounded by people you love, working toward a life fulfilled and being positive.” Vincent Juarez, manager of a Pasadena Starbucks, said Casey’s story embodies the Starbucks mission of the limitless possibilities of human connection. She’s joyful and lives values (like) courage and pride in her craft, he said.
Juarez volunteers as a program mentor, too. “I love the stories, learning about the experiences and getting to know them,” he said. “They’re young adults getting ready to take life on.
This work, we see the meaning of it, it’s a calling. I think it’s the coolest mission out there.” For Casey, the mission is common ground with other passionate people.
The nonprofit is working toward opening a second location in Highland Park, where social agencies report many 16-24 year olds in transitional care are struggling. Coffee With a Cause’s youngest board director is there for it. “You have so little time on this earth, you should live all the very things you want and be proud,” she said.
“I’m proud of where I am in my life. Struggle comes and goes, but there will always be people you will love and support you. And a good cup of coffee.
” Anissa Rivera is a freelancer and columnist who writes for the Southern California News Group..
