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Freemasons and Capper Foundation to treat first responders; Dialogue Coffee House expands training sites
Summary
Mayor introduced a Freemasons–Capper Foundation partnership to provide coffee and cookies to first responders and to highlight Dialogue Coffee House, which runs six locations that offer paid jobs and training for people with disabilities.
At the press conference, the mayor invited representatives of local Freemasons and the Capper Foundation’s Dialogue Coffee House to describe a December program that will honor first responders.
Mister Shively, representing the Freemasons of Topeka, said the lodges will "provide a coffee or drink of choice and homemade cookie for all of our first responders at Topeka to say thank you" and that the effort was intended to showcase Capper Foundation programming.
Zach Ahrens of the Capper Foundation described Dialogue Coffee House as a training and employment program with multiple neighborhood sites. He listed locations that include a first site at 29th Engage, a storefront at 10th and Yurish (Fellowship Bible Church), a Silver Lake site near the high school on Railroad Road, a Blue Cross Blue Shield site downtown, a site at the former Hills Building (the Stormont Vail Administrative Center) and a new location on the Washburn University campus in the School of Applied Studies. Ahrens said the six locations provide nearly 50 paid job opportunities for people of varying abilities and that program partners work to structure wages so participants can retain benefits such as SSI.
Both the mayor and the speakers framed the initiative as a way to recognize first responders while connecting community organizations with workforce opportunities for people with disabilities. The mayor thanked the Freemasons and the Capper Foundation for the partnership and invited residents to visit Dialogue Coffee House locations.
