More Than Words bookstore on Moody Street is now offering a lot more than reading material.
The shop recently opened a cafe and related training program to provide at-risk youths ages 16 to 21 with skills for the future.
"Our goal is always to help them move on to bigger and brighter things," said Jennifer Stewart, director of operations for More Than Words, a nonprofit. "These are skills they can use primarily in the hospitality industry and the food service industry ... Our goal is as we build the program to be giving them more skills to make them more marketable."
By having the cafe, the youth-run bookstore has increased its staff from 16 to 24. The shop serves a variety of pastries, and coffee.
"From the moment we wanted to open a youth-run bookstore (the youth) wanted to run a cafe ... we connected with a nonprofit on the West Coast called Fare Start," said Executive Director Jodi Rosenbaum. "They are a leader in job training and they believe the best job-training is a job."
The cafe opened July 17 and the bookstore plans to have a grand-opening ceremony Aug. 20.
"(Cafe customers) are slowly starting to trickle in," Rosenbaum said. The youths, who typically stay in the program for six to 12 months, were trained in June at a Belmont Starbucks.
"They really focused on customer service and helping understand coffees and how they are paired with foods and understanding the business of coffees," Stewart said. "The other side of this is training we've had in-house."
Starbucks representatives came to the bookstore and helped trained the young people on how to use a Lamarzocco espresso machine.
Rosenbaum said patrons are often impressed how efficiently the youths run the bookstore and cafe.
"People's perceptions of our youth start to shift when they come in here," she said. "They are floored when they find out what our young people do."
Besides running the cafe and bookstore, the young people work on life skills.
Damien Birdsall, 20, is getting help with GED classes and Mike Williams, 16, recently received help setting up a checking account.
"I don't think I would have been able to set up a checking account. I'm not from around here," Williams said. "To get a bank account my mom would have had to sign for it. More Than Words found a way to get me a student bank account. More Than Words helps me make goals...they make suggestions and it brightens up my eyes."
More Than Words is located at 376 Moody St. For more information visit www.morethanwordsbooks.com.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.
