More good news from the inner city of New Orleans at Cafe Reconcile

23-year-old rejects a life of violence on New Orleans streets

Published: Monday, May 28, 2012

By Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

When Ryan Dalton ran drugs on the streets of the 8th Ward, he always breathed easy, even when he knew someone with a grudge and a gun might be hunting him. But as he plans to board a plane next month to participate in a youth summit at the White House, Dalton knows better than to expect an inner calm.

Enlarge Ted Jackson, The Times-Picayune TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Ryan Dalton gets a hug from his Cafe Reconcile mentor, Nicole Bordley during his shift at the cafe Thursday, May 24, 2012. Shot 3 times, Dalton has now turned his life around and is working at Cafe Reconcile, and , a nonprofit restaurant that uses innovation strategies to provide life skills and job training to youth from at-risk communities in the New Orleans area. Ryan Dalton revives his life through Cafe Reconcile gallery (4 photos)

• 
• 
• 

His hands will sweat. He will break out in goose bumps. His heart will race. "Some people are scared of success," Dalton said.
The way things have been going, the 23-year-old Frederick Douglass High School graduate might try to get used to it.
More than two years after a shower of AK-47 rounds left him with a baseball-sized hole in his lower back, Dalton has moved from a cycle of chronic homelessness, street violence and narcotics-trading into a full-time job at a Central City workforce development program.
A welterweight with bright eyes and neat dreadlocks, he also is starting a nonprofit aimed at connecting the city's troubled children and teenagers with the myriad social programs already available to them, though they often don't realize it.
It's the kind of wholesale change New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu heralded last week when he introduced Dalton during his State of the City address as an example of how social services and the attention of caring adults can help a motivated, ambitious young person reject a life of crime.
Such mentorship is a key component of the mayor's new murder-reduction initiative, dubbed "NOLA for Life," which also includes major investments in community infrastructure and beefed-up prosecution of criminals intent on breaking the law.
"It was his sister who first told Ryan about a program called Cafe Reconcile, a nonprofit on O.C. Haley Boulevard that helps connect young people to skills and jobs," Landrieu told an audience of elected officials, community leaders and others at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre for the Performing Arts.
"Ryan excelled in the program and now is a Cafe Reconcile floor trainer in his own right, and is pursuing a degree in business," he said. "Ryan's life is a testament that hope -- though she may be concealed -- is always there, waiting for us to seek her out."
Not long after the speech, Cafe Reconcile announced on its website that Dalton will head to Washington D.C. to participate a community summit for disconnected youth. The chance came by virtue of Dalton's role as a national youth ambassador with the Youth Leadership Institute, a policy organization that also runs community programs.
Sitting in the restaurant's glass-enclosed front room just before the lunch rush, Dalton on Friday recalled that he always thrived on work. At 9, he swept hair from the floors of local barber shops and beauty salons. And by 13, he was plying the construction trade with skills gleaned from a neighbor.
But with 10 siblings, a mostly-absent father, a busy mom and the disruption of Hurricane Katrina, Dalton stumbled off his course toward becoming a professional photographer. When he became a father for the first time at 18 -- he has three children now -- Dalton took to the streets to supplement the inconsistent income he earned working port jobs.
"I got so knee-deep in the street life," he said, adding that he spent a stint in jail.
On his sister's advice, Dalton started Cafe Reconcile's training program in October 2009. A week later, he was shot. Despite rules about protracted absences, Dalton convinced organizers to let him return. With blood sometimes seeping from his bullet wound, he fought dizzy spells to stay on the job.

View full sizeTed Jackson, The Times-Picayune'Ryan's life is a testament that hope -- though she may be concealed -- is always there, waiting for us to seek her out,' Mayor Mitch Landrieu said of Ryan Dalton, as he asked him to stand during the mayor's state-of-the-city speech last week.

Eventually, Dalton was hired by the program as a front house manager, and now he is leading The P.U.S.H Project -- the name stands for perseverance, understanding, success and healing -- with the goal of using city-owned parks to connect residents ages 4 through 24 with recreational and job opportunities, including the multitude of programs already up and running in the city.
"So many times, the young people don't know who believes in them," said Dalton, who wears a black elastic bracelet stamped with the phrase, "Dreams Are Weapons."
"If you think you're a lost cause, why not torment everyone else?" he said.
Aiming to connect his peers with the sort of job opportunities he seized, Dalton returns often to his old 8th Ward stomping ground. "I was shot a couple of blocks from where I'm recruiting people," he said. "I'm grabbing people and I'm bringing them here."
His message echoes the sentiment Landrieu shared when he asked Dalton to stand and be recognized by the crowd that had gathered to hear his speech.
"Some are cynical and believe that we cannot change, but I believe we can," the mayor said. "I have great hope because of young people like Ryan Dalton."
Anxiety aside, Dalton said he's excited about his trip to the nation's capitol. It will include his first airplane ride, his first trip to the White House and the latest step in a personal journey that's far from finished.
"I'm dedicated to my change, and it's not over," he said. "I can't even wrap around it yet."