Empowering women on their journey to recovery from addiction at a café and coffee shop
By Miriam Lerner
Imagine applying for a job, and the interviewer asks: Do you have any felonies? Do you use drugs? Are you a woman? Answering “yes” to any of these questions makes it unlikely that you will receive a job offer, unless you are talking to Joy Bergfalk, Executive Director of Rochester’s Coffee Connection. Joy’s definition of “three strikes, you’re out” is different from what folks in recovery typically experience. Answering “yes” to any or all of these questions makes you a candidate to work in a fun, interesting, and joyful work environment.
Women in recovery often find cavernous gaps in continuity of services. After completing detox and inpatient or outpatient rehab, or release from incarcerations, there are required meetings and after-care appointments. Many of these appointments create logistical obstacles to procuring gainful employment, and societal attitudes cause many doors of opportunity to close. Returning to gainful employment improves battered self-esteem, and provides people with an income for sustenance. But how does someone who served time in prison and battled addiction convince prospective employers they deserve a chance to learn, grow, and accrue sober time?
Coffee Connection empowers women on their journey to recovery from addiction. The intern-to-employee program model seeks to build the business by hiring women to fully staff the organization. Comprehensive, continuous support is provided for women on their journey toward sustainable recovery, integrating their reintroduction to healthy life practices within the context of running a business.
Since 2001, Coffee Connection (formerly the Women’s Coffee Connection) has been one of Rochester’s premiere coffee roasters, providing savory coffee and unique merchandise to the community, while supporting social and environmental causes at home and abroad. The project was founded by Nancy Sawyer-Molina, who envisioned a new paradigm for helping struggling women in the Rochester area obtain valuable employment training while improving their interpersonal skills. Through a mix of counseling and pre-employment training, Coffee Connection helps many women create new lives for themselves.
In November 2011, the nonprofit organization Life Listening Resources merged Project Empower, a five-year program of working with women in recovery, with the Coffee Connection. Joy has led and shepherded the effort, even during the uncertainty of COVID. Coffee Connection created a special brew, Front Line Coffee, that was free to doctors, nurses, EMTs, and testing center personnel as the pandemic escalated.
Coffee Connection partnerships include faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, community groups, and area businesses. Quality coffees are available from Peru, Guatemala, Sumatra, Honduras, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. Roasted beans can be purchased wholesale, and are fair trade, organically grown, and sustainably farmed. Learn more at www.ourcoffeeconnection.org. Visit one of their two locations for some great coffee, teas, baked goods, soups, and sandwiches at 681 South Avenue in Rochester or in the Marketplace Mall in Henrietta where Coffee Connection is brewing a brighter tomorrow, one cup, one woman, one day at a time.
Miriam Lerner is a sign language interpreter and community volunteer.
