Why don’t you go to Café Reconcile?”

More than fifty young people apply for the ten openings in each of the nine-week sessions. Four or five kids ask to be admitted to the program each day. Two of those five prospective students are walk-ins off the street. About forty people are on the waiting list.

Sister Mary Lou Specha, PBVM, executive director of Café Reconcile, describes one young man currently in the program: “He has a high school diploma. That in itself is unusual since 90 to 95 percent of those at Reconcile have dropped out of school. But he reads at the third-grade level. He was scared to death to go out on the floor to take food orders because of his poor reading skills. He quit his last job because everybody made fun of him, telling him he was stupid. He kept his handicap well hidden, but he has lived with that secret his whole life.”

Café Reconcile gives hardened street kids—even those with a criminal history—a sense of accom­p­lishment. Many have experienced horrific violence, and it’s not unusual for a student participating in the program during the week to have been incarcerated by Monday morning. One week, four students in the program were imprisoned. One student had been shot eight times by the time he came to Reconcile.

 “You have to understand the background these kids come from,” Sister Mary Lou said. “Many have left a home torn by drugs and abuse. They’ve gained the affection and approval of all the wrong people. Their moral code is to survive by whatever means they can. We’re discouraged when any of our kids drops out, but we can’t leave them in the slums to fail. We want to inspire young people and get them off the streets and into a safe environment. We want them to succeed.”
Many of the young people who come to Café Reconcile have no stability in their lives. They live with one relative for two or three days, then with another relative for a few more days. Some are living in rental units, others live with single parents, and others live in shelters. Many have a history of drug abuse.

 “We expect them to test positive for drugs when they arrive,” Sister Mary Lou said. “But we try to get them into counseling and drug-prevention classes, and we try to show them a much better way to live. It’s amazing how successful they can be with very little training.”


One of Café Reconcile’s success stories is Doris. When Doris was eight years old, she often came to Kids Café, where she found people who cared about her and wanted something better for her. But Doris and her brother faced the harsh realities of an unpredictable and violent family. Her mother was on drugs, and Doris never knew her father. The State of Louisiana placed Doris and her brother with foster parents.

At seventeen, Doris decided she was tired of living in group homes and ran away to San Antonio, Texas. Her instincts to survive on her own overwhelmed any temptation to trust another person to care for her. For a year she lived in Texas with the father of her baby, but she always planned to come back to New Orleans.

Doris did return to New Orleans and entered the program. She found people she would learn to trust the day she walked into Café Reconcile. With her new child, she had to live for more than just herself. She worked hard, finished her GED, and was able to save enough money to move out of the foster home and into her own apartment.

Doris is now employed by Café Reconcile as a floor supervisor. She ensures that everything runs smoothly, that orders are taken correctly, that waiters approach customers in a friendly manner, that conflict is dealt with appropriately, and that patrons are pleased with the food and the service.

“Café Reconcile has been my guardian angel,” said Doris. “God brought me here to make me realize I’m not the only person with problems. But I have to deal with my problems in an appropriate manner and not turn to drugs, prostitution, and violence.”

Sister Mary Lou told Doris that Café Reconcile is not the end for her. “We don’t want to hold you here for the rest of your life. This is not your career. We just want to boost you up a little.”

Doris, now twenty years old, has grown into a lovely, graceful, and talented woman. Although she hesitated to return to school for fear of failing, she is now enrolled in a nursing program. She knows the world has much to offer, and she has a bolder vision of what the future holds. Doris is a wonderful example of how a desperate young woman of the streets can have a chance at a new life.