Future Chefs evolved from a scholarship program directed by Founder Toni Elka from 2004 to 2007. Believing strongly that we as a society have a collective obligation to prepare young people to find employment and lead productive lives, Ms. Elka took action when the foundation funding the program ceased operations in 2007. She secured a major grant to develop a comprehensive school-to-career program, utilizing her knowledge and connections, for the pipeline of students already engaged in the former program. Her long-term vision, however, was to enrich and extend workforce development and personal growth opportunities for all teens making the crossing from adolescence to adulthood.

At the onset of the U.S. financial crisis in September of 2008, Future Chefs was developing its second year of programming. Because of the economic downturn, Future Chefs’ initial, sole funder abruptly withdrew support. Again undeterred, Ms. Elka secured new funding and entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with Third Sector New England. These early experiences lead Future Chefs to prioritize sustainable funding while continuing to build capacity and develop innovative programming.

Since 2008, Future Chefs has been focused on program development and high impact capacity building and has served more than 400 Greater Boston Youth. In 2011, the Root Cause Social Innovation Forum recognized these efforts and named Future Chefs the “Innovator for Education and Employment for Vulnerable Youth.” This prestigious award provided Future Chefs with both high profile recognition and an array of capacity building tools and resources. With Root Causes’ support, Future Chefs developed a two-year plan to open an office, teaching kitchen and office in Boston. In February of 2012, one year ahead of schedule, Future Chefs moved into this new space. The Boston Teaching Kitchen has significantly enriched and expanded Future Chefs’ programming.

Future Chefs marked several other milestones in 2012. In September, the organization completed a comprehensive one-year engagement with the Boston Capacity Institute to create a performance measurement system. With the help of Capacity Institute consultants, Future Chefs (1) developed a formal Logic Model/Theory of Change and measurement indicators, (2) improved data collection and (3) systemized referral and recruitment partnerships. Through a grant from the Mass Mentoring Partnership, Future Chefs also retained a full time “Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring” to focus exclusively on new program models and opportunities.

Future Chefs continues to receive recognition, build capacity and improve and enrich its programming. In 2013, The Philanthropic Initiative at the Boston Foundation named Ms. Elka the first Boston Neighborhood Fellow. An April 22 Boston Herald Article on Third Sector New England, “A Mission to Manage,” highlights Future Chefs’ decision to choose fiscal sponsorship.

• Apprenticeship Program: Future Chefs completed two sessions of the apprenticeship program which began in April 2015.  Apprentices spend approximately 32-40 hours per week in a paid position in high-end Boston restaurants. They attend a two-hour professional development workshop two times each month and work closely with supervisors who monitor their progress.
• Future Chefs launched a pilot of Future Chefs Delivers in the fall of 2015. The program is designed to meet the needs of proven-risk youth aged 18-24, who are neither in school nor working, by providing a 25 hour per week paid position of culinary training and workforce readiness skills. Food is prepared and delivered without cost to local non-profits who provide services for children, youth, families and the homeless. After completing training, students have access to FC’s post-secondary opportunities, including employment in the culinary industry.
• Performance Measurement: In April 2015, Future Chefs began work on performance measurement. Over the past 12 months, Future Chefs refined the logic model for its programming, identified indicators and measurement tools and implemented a performance measurement protocol. Future Chefs also built out a Salesforce database to measure and track program outcomes. 

Current Goals 2016-2017:

• New Headquarters: Future Chefs will be moving to a new space in 2017 as a result of redevelopment of its current location. Relocation will serve as an opportunity to expand its teaching kitchen/office space and its programming. Future Chefs plans to remain in its current neighborhood of Boston's South End/Lower Roxbury.
• Explore the development of a revenue producing, social enterprise initiative.
• Contribute to and support the development of a best practices model for addressing youth unemployment through creative, career-specific strategies in partnership with employers, educators and other community-based organizations. 

Future Chefs’ goals for the next one to two years reflect significant growth on both an organizational and program level. To support this growth, Future Chefs needs:

The labor market has become more demanding and many employers recognize the existence of a skills gap – young adults lack the training and the 21st century skills necessary to sustain a middle wage job. A report from Harvard University’s School of Education recognizes that although some education beyond high school is “the passport to the American Dream,” the real questions facing these low-income young people are “what kind?” and “how much?” education is necessary to succeed.

There is an urgent need for clear career pathways and post-secondary options for Boston and Greater Boston youth who are unprepared, unready or disinterested in a 4 year post secondary degree. These youth face a difficult transition to a career because they often lack the family or community networks necessary to help build a vision for the critical time after high school when they need a plan and opportunities to build confidence and transferrable skills in the workforce.

A recent Massachusetts Labor Force study showed that teen and young adult employment is in steady decline since 1999. While other Boston workforce development organizations with a culinary focus serve disengaged youth and adults, Future Chefs is addressing this downward trend by intervening earlier in the lives of youth and helping them to establish a pattern of success.

Our Advisory Council Finance Committee meets monthly, led by AAF/CPA partner, Thomas Muldoon CPA, retired banker Rob Ocko, and restaurant owner, Erik Papachristos (Trade, Porto, Saloniki). The focus is on insuring that our financial needs are addressed in a timely and reasonable fashion. We work to provide oversight to budget process and identify potential risks and opportunities that are in the best interests of Future Chefs. The committee provides added capacity on the operations front and the Chair of the Development Committee, Travis Keltner is a liaison to the Finance Committee.

Other Documents

Future Chefs offers programming for low-income youth (ages 16 to 24) from Boston and Greater Boston designed to create a way out of the cycle of poverty, address the "skills gap" and provide young people with viable post-secondary options and a clear career pathway.

Future Chefs is well positioned to address the need for career pathways among youth by teaching hard culinary skills and transferable soft skills in a positive youth development environment. Other Boston workforce development organizations with a culinary focus serve disengaged youth and adults. In contrast, Future Chefs intervenes earlier in the lives of youth and helps them to establish a pattern of success. 

Future Chefs has been focused on staff capacity and is well equipped to reach its goals. The Future Chefs leadership team is in place and meets regularly and a 14 member Advisory Council meets quarterly. Future Chefs has also added several committees to support its work, including a Financial Committee, Move Committee, Fundraising Committee and Marketing Committee.

Future Chefs has a strong network of collaborators including high school educations partners and secondary education partners, community partners, a large number of engaged industry partners, program development and financial support, and several collaborative support and capacity building partners that contribute toward organizational and program development.

Future Chefs is using a fully operational Salesforce system and has completed a refined outcome measurement protocol.

Progress is measured by Future Chefs' reach (number of participants at different levels of programming), the number of participants who reach key benchmarks in the pathway to long term employment such as a high school diploma, a marketable industry credential, some post-secondary education, solid job-readiness skills and short-term, transition employment. The number of participants who reach key benchmarks in the pathway to long term employment such as a high school diploma, a marketable industry credential, some post-secondary education, solid job-readiness skills and short-term, transition employment.

In response to industry and student need, Future Chefs launched a formal Apprenticeship program in 2015. An Industry Advisory Council, in conjunction with Future Chefs, developed a list of ten goals that each apprentice must meet to complete the program, and progress toward these goals is measured on a weekly basis. Future Chefs provides the soft skills/educational component in-house through workshops that are tailored to the needs of the apprentices, using portions of "Signaling Success," a soft skills curriculum developed by Commonwealth Corp to connect teens and young adults to career pathways.

Apprentices spend approximately 40 hours per week in the kitchen of a high-end restaurant and attend two-hour soft skills workshops two times a month. Each apprentice is paid a stipend and is mentored by an on-site supervisor who oversees his or her progress.

Since the onset of the Apprenticeship program, we realized that the hourly wage being paid in the Apprenticeship had to be increased. Several youth opted for dead-end job instead. We increased the stipend and increased the weekly hours from 32 to 40 to make the program an economically viable option.

Future Chefs also addressed the need to expand our programming to help youth aged 18 to 24 who are not in school nor working and customize our hard and soft skills course work to meet the specific needs of parenting, homeless, and older unemployed youth. Getting them on a career track is critical. In response we created a new position for a designated youth development manager to ensure that all program design, implementation and evaluation is culturally responsive and grounded in good youth development practices. We also developed a better understanding of training needs and staffing qualifications. Beyond culinary skills, our staff must have the patience, insight, and experience to coach youth who live in risky and challenging environments.

We continue to expand our training programs to ensure that staff members are given the tools and support they need to succeed. We learned the importance of recruiting motivated youth and we were able to find youth who were a better fit for the FC Delivers program by forming a relationship with ABCD.  Still, as our UTEC colleague, Greg Croteau said in a recent article about youth who are struggling to find and retain work," It 's not a six- or nine-month journey.  Our young people are going to take a couple of years to work through their bump."  Future Chefs staff and leadership are deeply committed to the quest for sustainable strategies to address this need.