potrero view

March 2010

Old Skool Cafe Schools At-Risk Youth

By Ben Terrall

After graduating from Westmont College in 1997, Teresa Goines worked for two years as a probation officer in Santa Barbara.  The experience changed her views about incarceration, having witnessed “a revolving door” in which youth were pulled into the criminal justice system with few options for finding ways out.  Young people, according to Goines, were “set up to fail.”

Goines decided to shift her focus to preventative work.  After moving to the City in 2002 she took a job with the San Francisco Unified School District as the coordinator of the Gang Risk Intervention Program (GRIP) at Horace Mann Middle School. When GRIP laid her off she took a job as the Head Start family service manager, housed at 20 Cook Street.  In that position Goines oversaw family support services for 13 Head Start sites.  

Based on these experiences, Goines developed Cora Jean’s Old Skool Café - named after her mother – to serve youth and young adults aged 16 to 24, initially operating from her Mississippi Street home.  The Café trains at-risk youth in cooking, bartending, waiting tables and performing.  According to Goines, an at-risk youth has “one or more of the following factors as challenges in their lives:  living at or below the poverty level, living in a neighborhood/environment with crime and violence, a school dropout or regularly truant and low performing academically, a foster care youth, previously arrested or incarcerated, or having one or more parents on drugs or incarcerated.”  Today, the Café is run out of Goines’ Bayview apartment at Le Conte Circle.

Old Skool Cafe (OCS) has hosted events in various Bay Area venues, including a jazz brunch which ran weekly for four months at Powell’s Soul Food on Third Street.  But according to Goines the extra work involved in moving from place to place is exhausting.  She and her team of volunteers hope to make a permanent base by transforming the 1912-era police station and jail located on 20th and Third streets into what the Old Skool crew envision as “the hottest restaurant the City has ever seen.”  

“I totally support OSC’s vision to transform a former police facility into a center of hope and opportunity for young persons. The site itself will become a beacon that brightens both the community and the futures for youth,” said William Siffermann, San Francisco’s Juvenile Probation Department’s chief probation officer.  “The bold vision and positive programming offered by the Old Skool Cafe provides San Francisco youth with unique pathways to productive lifestyles and opens them up to multiple career tracks.  I am in full support of The Old Skool Cafe and urge the support of others interested in the futures of San Francisco youth.”  

OSC volunteer Angie Martinez explained that while the project stresses the music and look of 1920s-era jazz clubs, the young performers flex their musical chops on material ranging from classic jazz to hip-hop.  Martinez is a single mom who, in her younger years, spent time in juvenile justice facilities.  She said those experiences make her acutely aware of the need for programs like OSC.  “There are not enough programs like this,” Martinez said.  “Teresa loves these kids. There are not enough people like her in the world. She’s a beautiful person.”  Martinez helps Goines with a variety of projects, including the garden at Key Street, which provides food for OSC’s dinners.  “I’m usually out there on Saturday mornings, training the youth in gardening,” she said.

The OSC-affiliated community garden at 945 Key Avenue was developed in collaboration with the Quesada Gardens initiative.  According to Bayview resident and activist Jeffrey Betcher, who has long worked with Quesada Gardens, University of San Francisco students helped terrace the multiple-leveled garden on Key Avenue. Goines’ apartment looks down on the site, which will soon be producing artichokes, collard greens and herbs – including thyme and oregano – among other produce. Betcher said he and his colleagues don’t get involved in a project unless people in the neighborhood are closely tied to the work.  Goines “gets that instinctively,” Betcher said, praising her commitment to her young charges.

According to San Mateo County resident Tammy Vaitai, a 19 year old OSC participant, “The organization has provided for me a family outside of my own, a chance for a successful future as well as a stage to continue exposing my gift as a spoken word artist/vocalist.  Every minute I spend with Teresa and Old Skool Cafe is a blessing and an inspirational experience.”

OSC’s annual gala will be held on April 21st at Cafe Cocomo.  Eddie Blyden, executive chef at Hotel Durant in Berkeley, who has been mentoring OSC youngsters in the culinary arts, will oversee meals prepared by the youth.  Six different acts, including a young people’s swing band, will perform.

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