Emma's Torch in Washingtonian

How Emma’s Torch Is Changing the Lives of Its Refugee Workers

One recent evening after closing time, six young restaurant workers and their families huddled around tables inside a new coffee shop in Northeast DC. They tucked into plates of food while chatting in several languages. Some couldn’t communicate much with one another, but they were in a joyful mood. All recently arrived refugees and asylum seekers, they’d just finished an 11-week course at Emma’s Torch, a combination cafe and workforce-development center that trains and certifies recent arrivals and gets them jobs in the restaurant industry…Read More