Congratulations to Urbean Café, celebrating its 10th anniversary this month! Ten great years of serving our community, our clients, and of course, delicious food and coffee.

Throughout the last decade, Urbean Cafe has provided a successful workforce development program for returning and recovering citizens while serving up some of the best coffee and café-style food in town. On a busy day, the Café serves up to 600 customers at the Robert K. Pfaff Metro Transit Center.

By providing training, hands-on experience, time management skills, and other relevant experiences, Urbean Cafe has now helped more than 100 individuals accomplish countless successful aspects of workforce readiness, and re-entry.

Last month, we were blessed to host our 4th annual retreat at Martha’s House in Cadiz, Ohio! Lydia’s Home residents, staff, and successful graduates were able to come together to spend some quality time reconnecting, while enjoying the beautiful landscape of the property.

The ladies celebrated with lots of fishing, reading, good food, and fellowship. During their stay, they also threw a surprise wedding shower for one of our Lydia’s Home graduates! The celebration continues this weekend, as many of the ladies are also attending the wedding ceremony on Myrtle Beach!

On May 15, we held our annual Volunteer Day at Lydia’s Home. Thank you to more than 30 volunteers that helped make this special day a success!

We teamed up to get lots of spring cleanup, weeding, planting and mulching done on the Lydia’s Home property. Check out our photo gallery!

Broken Chains Ministry is thrilled to welcome nearly 300 people on October 9 at 6:30 p.m. in celebration, faith and fellowship as we pay tribute to 17 years of Restorative Justice.

Guy’s Party Center has helped us create a beautiful, carefully socially-distanced and delicious dining experience for our premiere annual event. Our honored guests will:

• Enjoy a full-course meal complete with dessert and coffee.

• Celebrate beautiful stories of transformation of individuals, families and children.

• Learn about $5 million in economic impact to Summit County through our Ministry.

• Celebrate of the recovery of the Ministry, Urbean Cafe and Lydia’s Home after COVID-19 closures.

This annual Benefit Banquet helps us raise vital funding for the various programs of our Ministry including our prison ministry. Thank you to all that have registered. Please contact Dennis Shawhan, Executive Director for questions about your RSVP, your Sponsorship or other event details.

Lydia's Home has received its State of Ohio Certification from Ohio Recovery Housing (ORH) as a Level III Recovery Residence and meets National Standards of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR).

To be eligible for this distinction, a recovery home must be actively serving the community, be in operation for at least 60 days and have at least 60 percent occupancy, meet the definition of recovery housing by OhioMHAS, and adhere to high Quality Standards and a Code of Ethics.

Key elements of recovery housing include:

• Illicit Drug and Alcohol Free Living Environment

• Recovery Housing, Not a Treatment Facility

• Resident-driven Length of Stay

• Peer Support and Recovery Supports

We celebrate this milestone with our staff and board as we seek to meet the highest quality and services for our clients.

The Ministry returned to its Summit County Jail offices on August 3 following more than 5 months of working remotely. Outreach and operations at Summit County Jail were suspended from March 15 to August 3, and many of our staff members suffered forced layoff.

During this period, the Ministry was completely cut off from the inmates it serves with the exception of virtual visits. However, the Ministry team succeeded in completing more than 900 virtual visits with inmates over more than five months.

On September 14, the Ministry was able to resume limited Bible Study classes using social distancing and other CDC and Ohio State Government recommended safety protocols related to COVID-19 guidelines.

We are thankful to be on the road to resuming full operations, as we continue to strive to meet the many needs of incarcerated individuals and returning citizens.

To help us raise vital funding necessary to support our Ministry, please visit our Donate page to make a love gift.

Our award-winning Urbean Cafe workforce development program reopened June 8 following a forced three-month COVID-19 related closure from late March through early June.

The Urbean Cafe program is a social business venture that has contributed nearly $5 million* to the local economy since 2011, and celebrated nine years in July.

The extended closure of the Cafe resulted in significant financial hardship for the organization, in addition to extended layoffs for our already vulnerable clientele. The Cafe is operating at 60% capacity as of September, and we continue to work with the community to resume full operations.

Come visit us at The Robert K. Pfaff Metro Transit Center in Akron, Ohio. We offer a diverse menu including our own locally roasted Urbean Cafe coffee and our famous Carrot Cake!

Broken Chains Ministry (BCM) will celebrate its fifteenth annual “Making the Difference” benefit banquet on Friday, September 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Guys Party Center of Akron.

Music by special guest violinist Heather Smith will serve as a stunning backdrop for an unforgettable evening that will showcase 15 years of positive impact. Smith, formerly of the Youngstown Symphony and the Warren Philharmonic, is a well-known area artist and soloist.

Developed in collaboration with the judicial system, social service organizations, and community leaders, BCM’s unique Restorative Justice program has improved public safety, created $3 million in economic impact, and saved tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Returning citizens are set up for successful transition to community through the Urbean Café workforce development program, a new home ownership program, and Lydia’s Home, a recovery home for women in the City of Green that recently celebrated its first anniversary.