Rawlings-Blake meets at a Starbucks to talk about youth jobs
Meetings organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in partnership with the global coffee giant, a good fit for a mayor known to like her java.
Above: In Dallas last year, Baltimore’s Stephanie Rawlings-Blake kicking off the Solutions City initiative along with other U.S. mayors. (Photo credit: US Mayor)
In a frothy concoction that formally combines her signature drink with her appetite for public policy, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will be holding the third of six town hall meetings on teen employment at the Fort Avenue Starbucks tonight at 5:30 p.m.
It’s part of a joint project that the coffee corporation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors call “the Solutions City℠ initiative.”
The idea is, the mayors of each participating city (Sacramento, Columbus, Orlando and Phoenix, as well as Baltimore) get together in a Starbucks store “to identify and tackle civic challenges on three key issues: providing access to education, supporting veterans, and empowering opportunity youth.”
Rawlings-Blake chose youth empowerment and has used the meetings so far to discuss the issue and promote her administration’s initiatives such as the Hire One Youth campaign, which encourages local employers to hire job-ready 16 to 21 year olds.
“We’re hoping to find partners – community groups who could supervise, foundations who could help to sustain the program and of course businesses interested in hiring,” said Brice Freeman, communications director for the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development.
Freeman said the meetings so far (the first was in October) have been “informal in feel” with about 20 invited participants. They begin with Starbucks staff offering “a coffee tasting and a little spiel” and then turning it over to the mayor, who moderates a panel discussion.
Asked whether members of the public interested in the issue should come to the meeting at the Starbucks, Freeman hesitated, saying the size of the room would make it hard to accommodate a crowd beyond the invited guests.
The meeting doesn’t stop the baristas from slinging the macchiatos and espressos, though, according to Freeman: “The store is still open during the meeting, they’re still serving customers. It’s kind of neat.”
Freeman said the meetings have been a useful opportunity for networking and that he’s hoping to hear “good discussions of what works and what doesn’t work.”
Asked whether any youth have been hired so far as a result of the meetings, he said, “Well, one has been hired at that Starbucks.”