Back in “91 ”to “93 ”when I was in college in Burlington, VT. I volunteered at an Anti-Profit (not Non-Profit) Cafe called “The Last Elm Cafe ”. Its was quite a experience. You go in, pick an open shift on the calendar & sign up for it. During that shift the cafe was yours to do with within the rules of the cafe. I mostly signed up for night shifts & always booked Singer/Songwriters & bands to play there. We had a magazine/newspaper rack with every underground & political activist rag you could find on it. We host meeting space for EarthFirst! To Food Not Bombs or whatever other political group needed a place to meet. This place was really a special place. I used to let kids crash at my place & started bringing them to the cafe at night and got them involved. They have since closed the place down. But it gave me some of my best memories. Some years ago I found myself down & out while living here during my daughter ’s pregnancy & discovered Sister ’s of the Road Caf é. I thought this is great. I returned to Santa Barbara after my granddaughter was born. I hung at a Coffee shop called Sienna. The back porch was always full of the homeless kids & local teens. The new owner decided he wanted to be more like Starbucks & started running the kids off. Slowly the kids were run off from every Coffee shop in SB. One day I was sitting on the back porch of Sienna talking to my friend Kina about how it was sad the street kids didn ’t have a safe social hangout away from the more frightening homeless population & the local subculture kids as well. Our friend Candy was sitting there whom at the moment was couch surfing. The only reason Candy hadn ’t been run off was she had once been the manager of the Cafe. I was telling Kina about the Coop Coffee shop in VT & the Homeless Diner in Portland & said it would be nice if we had a hybrid form of them in SB for the kids. Candy was like I get involve totally. Kina was like lets do it. Well it didn ’t happen for a few reasons. 1 being the high high high rent in SB for the space. When I move to Portland. Kina & me was talking about it, & Kina was like that go over real well here in Portland. So I started hammering out the original vision with some revisions.

Before I go into my Vision, allow me to point out a few things I ’ve learned over the years.
1. I was a teenage street kid myself once.
2. I have found that a vast majority of the street kids I ’ve met & helped over the years were Pagans. Misinform ones but Pagans never the lest.
3. Most of the street & local subculture teens are drawn to coffee shops.
4. Street kids won ’t go near homeless resource places due to mistrust of the older, harder homeless people.
5. Most street kids are part of the subculture scene & connect with the local subculture teens for survival as well as friendships.
6. Many of the kids that I watch growing up on the streets in SB, ended up with places to live & getting jobs, guess where? Yep! At the very coffee shops they hung at earlier.
7. I have found that you can help these kids find normal lives without having to change their dress style, hair color etc. Look at most of the kids around town who work at say the Fresh Pot Cafes.

Heres my Vision:
A Pagan mentored, Teen volunteer run Coop Coffee Shop, With a Pagan Community Outreach Office to take care of the people in the Pagan Community. Outreach programs, for street kids, out of place subculture local teens, Counseling for Pagan Teens (why not? They have counseling for gay teens.).

We would staff the Cafe with older Pagan mentors to guide the Teen Volunteers. Street kids could volunteer for credit towards coffee & other drinks just like they do at Sisters of the Road Cafe for food. It would be The Teen Cafe & Pagan Community Outreach Center or something along those line. With their own music, their art on the walls, etc.. etc …It be open for the Community at large (have to make money to run the cafe, plus allow customers to see that these kids deserve a chance.) but mainly tailor towards the Teens & young adults. The Cafe could be a springboard & Community outreach base to help the larger Pagan Community. Like helping single & battered Pagan Mamas, Single Pagan Mamas, and Legal help for Single Pagan Parents fighting non- pagan parents for child custody on grounds of pagan beliefs. (How many single parents lost custody battles because they were pagan?) The Cafe could not only host fund raising musical gigs & art gallery shows to raise money for the Cafe & Pagan Outreach Program, but also host Pagan Land Fundraising events. The space could be used to hold workshops, pagan/wiccan/druidic study groups etc …. There are tons & tons of thing that a Pagan run Community Coffee shop could be used for. Every penny made would go back into the Cafe & the Programs it supports. It be all volunteer, including the Pagan mentors & staff. My mind is to clutter with ideas to get them all down. But I think you all know what potential such a space for us would do in the Community at large. I was also thinking that the Cafe could have book shelves full of donated Pagan books, magazines & literature as well a soical & political stuff.

What do you think we could do with such a space? Comments? Like to make this vision come to light? Contact me & we can work to set such a meeting up with those interested in the Pagan Community.

You can call me on my cell at (805) 689-2690. Call leave a message & I ’ll call back.
~Gypsy