Madison, who is also the creator of the annual Black Women’s Leadership Conference, Black Excellence Youth Conference and Black Business expos, believes that bringing each of her organizations under one umbrella will help to expand her efforts to empower Black women and their families. “This is about providing a more concrete and long-lasting way to serve black women,” Madison told the Cap Times.

Ouk says that Madison as a city is struggling to keep young, up-and-coming entrepreneurs in Madison and that Madison is particularly losing young adults of color because of lack of opportunities. “We help them see that there are opportunities here in Madison and we help connect them to employers. That’s why i call it ConNEXTions because you have to have these connections in order to build social capital.”

“The way they were going to recruit for the course spoke to the mission of it,” said Carla Garces, co-director of the Latino Academy. “A lot of people would want to take this course, but their focus was people who were unemployed or underemployed, people from communities who don’t normally get this opportunity. For us that was attractive.”

The organization addresses the fatigue of both an external and internal racial battle among people of color, as well as the fragility displayed among white people. By bringing awareness to racial biases, particularly in the mindfulness movement, [Mindfulness for the People] aims to disrupt the systematic racism we are so accustomed to.

The program isn’t just about slinging dough and cutting cookies. Participants learn the math and chemistry involved with large-scale baking from instructors like Jaclyn Eitrem. Students also receive one-on-one case management sessions. Staff also help students find jobs, prepare them for interviews and motivate them to put their best qualities on display.

For many people whom the program actively targets, it can be enormously challenging or even impossible to take time away from job hunting, or to quit a job that provides some income in order to take a class, even if that class would open up new opportunities. When you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, three weeks without pay is a big risk. So FoodWorks provides a $1,000 completion bonus and accelerates job placement for each of its graduates.