User:Belltoes/sandbox

Lisa Nigro is a former Chicago police officer and founder of Inspiration Cafe, where the homeless are served in a restaurant setting. In 2010, she was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Barack Obama, the second highest honor a U.S. citizen can receive. She currently travels the country as a speaker on volunteerism and nonprofit management topics.

Education
Nigro is a BS business graduate of National Lewis University (2001).

Inspiration Corporation
The nonprofit Inspiration Corporation and helps over 3,000 people per year, with 50 full-time staff and 1,500 volunteers. Inspiration Corporation has grown from the Inspiration Cafe to also provide supportive services, housing, employment preparation, vocational training and free voice mail and, as of 2012, is a $3.8 million agency.

Inspiration Cafe
The foundations of Inspiration Cafe began in 1989 after Nigro left the Chicago Police Department's drug enforcement team and began pulling a wagon filled with coffee and sandwiches through Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, where 10 percent of the homeless population lived. Nigro moved up to a van, then to a converted bus, and formally opened the Inspiration Cafe restaurant in 1991, inspired by Cafe 458 in Atlanta, Georgia. As a police officer, Nigro saw firsthand how homeless residents were treated with mistrust and disrespect. Nigro says she wanted to create an atmosphere where "you would be missed if you didn't come." Her belief in the importance of treating people like individuals and the importance of becoming self reliant caught the attention of the media and a building owner offered her a six-month lease at a storefront for $1. Early philanthropic supporters include Richard Driehaus, Jim Mabie, and Oprah Winfrey.

The Inspiration Cafe is a reservation-only restaurant where guests dine for free; guests are referred through social service agencies, and they must present a reservation card in order to be served. Guests are able to sit down, are waited on, order from a menu, and are able to send back orders for any reason just like in any restaurant, which is a stark contrast to soup kitchens and church basements with lines, no choices, and less dignity. One guest summarized his experience: Everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, once they find out that you're homeless, all of a sudden you're not a human being, you're a thing to be discarded. What happens at the Inspiration Cafe is totally different. At least for a few minutes a day, here you're treated like a human being.

A television commercial aired during the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 featuring Lisa Nigro's story of her wagon and founding the Inspiration Cafe upstaged the awards in media buzz. It was underwritten by Frito-Lay to promote their True North division, who learned of Nigro after she won one of their essay contests for inspirational stories.

Housing Services program
Things.

Inspiration Kitchens
Inspiration Kitchens, located in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, won the 2013 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence Gold Medal.

Career Connections
Things.

Transform-U
Transform-U is a non-profit geared toward training people with cognitive disabilities to be certified as peer personal fitness trainers.