Collette Brotton once slept on the streets, or anywhere she could. Today she lives at Housing Hope’s Village in Everett. She has new skills as a barista and cares for her 3-year-old son, Sirus. At 21, she looks forward to a healthy, productive life.
Marvin, 16, has been a resident of Everett’s Cocoon House since 2014. He’ll soon start a job in a hotel restaurant, and plans to study at Edmonds Community College.
Both were honored Monday as the first graduates of an internship program that offers on-the-job barista training. Since January, they have worked in Everett’s CafeWorks Coffee Shop, a program of HopeWorks Social Enterprises.
The paid internship program was created by HopeWorks, an affiliate of Housing Hope, to help at-risk youth and young adults from the Cocoon House shelter and Housing Hope. Interns gain skills, confidence and work experience.
“This is a special moment,” said Ed Petersen, chief strategic officer of HopeWorks and Housing Hope. During Monday’s ceremony at the coffee shop, Petersen said that Brotton and Marvin “helped teach us how” to make the pilot program work.
The cafe is at 3331 Broadway, on the south side of the building that houses ReNewWorks Home &Decor Store, another HopeWorks venture. The agency also runs landscape and irrigation businesses.
As manager of CafeWorks, Eric Huenefeld helped get the internship program going. “We opened on Dec. 2, and a month later we brought in Marvin and Collette,” said Huenefeld, who has a background with Starbucks and a human services degree. “We couldn’t have asked for two better people to try it.”
Experience gained with the first two interns will help future trainees, Huenefeld said. One aspect of the program will be changed. Instead of 16 weeks, internships will be shorter. “That’s best for everybody. We’re sad to see them go, but they’ll have jobs. And Marvin is going to school,” he said.
Later this week, Marvin will start a full-time job in the cafe of the downtown Everett Holiday Inn. Andy Song, the teen’s case manager at Cocoon House, said Marvin is on track to start summer classes at EdCC. He plans to focus on culinary, hospitality and business classes.
Marvin, who came to the teen shelter in October 2014, grew up in the Lynnwood area. His sisters had also lived at Cocoon House. “Marvin is one of our top leaders,” said Cassie Franklin, CEO of Cocoon House. At last week’s Cocoon House Butterfly Graduation, he earned a Gold Butterfly Award honoring his accomplishments, she said.
Along with working 9 a.m.-1 p.m. weekdays at CafeWorks, Marvin helps prepare Cocoon House dinners for more than 20 people, Franklin said. He hopes to own a restaurant someday.
For Brotton, who will stay on a bit longer at CafeWorks, learning to serve coffee to customers is one more victory in a life that has seen her conquer the monster of drug addiction.
“My son saved my life,” said Brotton, who added that she has been clean since finding out she was pregnant almost four years ago. “A job helps me continue with my sobriety.”
Brotton said she ran away from home at 14, got into hard drugs at 15, and lived alone on the streets in Everett until she was 17. She works in the kitchen of Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center at Housing Hope, where her son is in the child care program. She had a job at Value Village, but didn’t work directly with customers.
The barista training helped Brotton work on her anxiety issues. Today she is less afraid and more comfortable meeting people. “So many jobs require customer service skills,” she said.
Andrew Brim, an employment specialist at Housing Hope, said Brotton began the CafeWorks internship working on small goals — making eye contact and staying calm under pressure. It wasn’t long before she was talking about aspirations of being a manager.
“Both of them have unlimited potential,” Huenefeld said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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