Kathy Litchfield serves as the program director at Café Reconcile. Café Reconcile is an eight-week youth workforce development organization that prepares opportunity youth for jobs in the culinary and hospitality sector while simultaneously providing a full menu of support and wraparound services. Reconcile supports include mental health and substance abuse counseling, child care assistance, transportation supports, SNAP/Medicaid applications, legal support/advocacy and general problem solving and life-planning. Support in planning and organizing around these barriers makes full-time employment achievable and sustainable for Café Reconcile students and alumni. In 2018, 82 percent of Reconcile students who completed the program were immediately employed. Prior to serving as Reconcile’s Program Director, Kathy was Reconcile’s Employment and Education Manager for four years. Before Reconcile, Kathy taught high school in both New Orleans and outside Boston, worked with a variety of college-access organizations that supported low-income, first-generation students on their path to college, and served as a residential electrician in Mississippi post-Katrina. Kathy is a certified YPQI Methods trainer and external assessor/coach and holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary English education with teacher licensure, a master’s in nonprofit management, and a post-master’s certificate in organizational development. Kathy is excited to join the 2019 Workforce Leadership Academy.
Kathy Litchfield is a member of the New Orleans Workforce Leadership Academy, Class of 2019, one of several Workforce Leadership Academies in localities across North America.
The Workforce Leadership Academies are part of the Economic Opportunity Fellows Network, a network of leadership and fellowship programs run by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. Within this Network, EOP connects national and local leaders from across sectors — nonprofit, government, business, philanthropy, academia, and more — to advance policies and practices with the potential to help low- and moderate-income Americans thrive in today’s economy. Learn more at as.pn/eofn.
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