Starbucks Supports Local Revitalization and Youth Hiring in Miami Gardens

Working with community and civic leaders in Miami Gardens, Starbucks is launching a long-term effort to create local jobs, provide training opportunities for youth, and invest in local minority-owned businesses

Opening Monday, Oct. 16, the new store is part of Starbucks ongoing effort to open stores in at least 15 underserved, low- to medium-income communities by 2018

Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver G. Gilbert III and Chief of Police Delma K. Noel-Pratt joined Starbucks partners (employees) and more than 100 community and civic leaders at a special preview event at the new store today

MIAMI GARDENS (Oct. 13) – On Monday, Oct. 16, Starbucks will open a new store in Miami Gardens, Fla., the latest in the company’s ongoing nationwide initiative to open stores in at least 15 underserved, low- to medium- income communities across the U.S by 2018.

Each location, including the store in Miami Gardens, aims to support ongoing revitalization efforts in the community by creating new jobs, engaging local women and minority-owned vendors and suppliers, and collaborating with local nonprofits to support training opportunities for youth in the community.

“We believe Starbucks can play a meaningful role in creating local jobs, while supporting this community’s ongoing efforts to drive economic revitalization and social change,” said Rodney Hines, director for U.S. social impact. “By investing in Miami Gardens and opening this beautiful new store, we want to demonstrate that businesses can join with civic and community leaders to help create opportunities for all.  We are grateful for the community’s support and look forward to welcoming everyone when we open on Monday morning.”

Seven similar stores are already open across the country in the Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, N.Y.; Ferguson, Mo; central Phoenix; Englewood in the southside of Chicago; East Baltimore; Long Beach, Calif., and White Center in south Seattle. The store in Miami Gardens is the first such Starbucks® store to open in the southeast U.S. The company will open two more stores, in Birmingham, Ala., and Trenton, N.J. in the coming months.

Each of these stores, including the location opening in Miami Gardens, has a dedicated in-store training space where young people can receive customer service and retail skills training, based on the same world-class training Starbucks partners (employees) receive.

Starbucks is working with South Florida CARES Mentoring Movement to provide the multi-week training program to at least 100 local youth each year, leveraging existing programs aimed at helping connect young people with internships, apprenticeships and jobs in these communities and foster the type of dialogue and engagement needed for continued social change. These trainings will also help Starbucks continue to make progress on its commitment to connect Opportunity Youth, the estimated 4.9 million young people ages 16 to 24 who are not in school nor employed, to meaningful jobs, education and a pathway to lifelong success.

“South Florida CARES and the National CARES Mentoring Movement are inspired by Starbucks dedication to giving back to its community,” said Tracey Robertson Carter, Executive Director of South Florida CARES. “Our four-year partnership with Starbucks has been a joyful marriage of our shared missions, and has created tremendous opportunities for the young people we serve every day. We are thrilled to celebrate the opening of the new Miami Gardens store, and deepen this important work alongside Starbucks partners and the community.”