Abstract
This workshop will feature women from the Coffee Connection telling their stories of personal empowerment and how they are learning to live together in a diverse workplace, not just talking about diversity but living it. The Coffee Connection provides employment training and job creation for women in recovery from addiction and as a not-for-profit business sells fair trade, organic coffee to retail and wholesale customers. In partnership with Project Empower, Coffee Connection provides comprehensive, continuous support for women on their journey toward sustainable recovery. Participants will interact with the women, with opportunity for questions and open conversation in response to their stories. The presenters will describe the life skills taught in the program and practiced daily on the job in a mutually supportive work environment and guide the participants to imagine how they can live diversity every day.
Description
Moderator: Ms. Joy Bergfalk, Executive Director of the Coffee Connection/Project Empower
Ms. Joy Bergfalk founded Project Empower in 2007 to empower women to live into their full potential. The program focuses on the interplay of trauma in women’s lives with addiction, poverty, and violence. In 2011, the program was merged with the Coffee Connection, a nonprofit business providing employment training for women in recovery. Growing from one store and five women, the Coffee Connection now has three stores and 35 women working and learning together in a diverse work environment, with an 80 percent success rate in empowering women to build a sustainable recovery and life.
Panelists:
TBD
