“A More Powerful Yes”
How does a wayward teen from Detroit evolve enough to turn a near-certain jail sentence into a world-renowned culinary institute and 5-star French Restaurant? Passion, Perseverance and Purpose!
Brandon Edwin Chrostowski is on a mission to change the face of re-entry in the United States. In 2007, he founded EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute, a free 6-month culinary arts program in Cleveland, Ohio that caters to men and women recently released from prison. In 2013, EDWINS Restaurant, featuring classic French cuisine and 50 formerly incarcerated students, opened to rave reviews and has been changing lives ever since.
Hailed as a national model for re-entry, the institute, under Brandon’s zealous guidance and advocacy has gone on to graduate over 250 students, placing them in jobs all over Northeast Ohio while Brandon himself has been electrifying audiences nationwide with his story of redemption, his philosophy of second chances and his mission to give voice to the voiceless. In the process, Brandon Chrostowski has earned dozens of awards, including CNN Heroes, Crain’s 40 under 40 and The Richard C. Cornuelle Award from the Manhattan Institute for Social Entrepreneurship and became the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary film, “Knife Skills”. He’s been chronicled by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Steve Harvey Show, TD Jakes, CNN, NBC, ABC, NPR, Food Network and more.
His lectures have inspired, awakened, motivated and thrilled university and corporate audiences alike, while garnering more than a few emotionally rousing standing ovations. Presently, Brandon Chrostowski continues to work tirelessly towards the mission of providing everyone, regardless of their past, a fair and equal future. In addition to student housing and the life skills campus that have become safe havens for program enrollees and alumni, Brandon has opened EDWINS Butcher Shop and Training Center, with a bakery coming in the near future. Brandon has invested his money, heart, time and soul into erasing the stigma attached to returning citizens. His reward? Watching his students become future leaders in the hospitality industry.
Location:
The City Club of Cleveland
850 Euclid Avenue, 2nd Floor
Cleveland, OH 44114
Time:
11:30 a.m. – Register & lunch buffet open
Program begins at noon.
REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED
As part of the Renee Jones Empowerment Center, Sister has ministered for the past eight years with women and girls who have been trafficked for the commercial sex trade. As a personal support advocate who attends the special docket human trafficking court for adult women and the Safe Harbor Court for minors, Sister visits women who are incarcerated and maintains connections with them when they are in drug treatment facilities. Sister also cooperates with the Regional Human Trafficking Task Force by developing a continuing relationship with rescued victims as they move through the process of healing and recovery from trauma to a greater fullness of life and empowerment. Sister engages with women in a variety of therapeutic activities including support groups, art therapy, writing, and therapeutic movement and dance. She is part of street outreach in areas where women have an opportunity to make an initial contact and benefit from a variety of immediate services. 
Born and raised in Cleveland, Fr. Bryan Y. Norton, S.J., is the youngest of three children and the proud uncle of five nieces and nephews. His family and home parish (St. Basil the Great) instilled in him a strong sense of solidarity, faith, and service. Bryan met the Society of Jesus at St. Ignatius High School, where the vibrant tradition of Jesuit education left a profound mark. Eager to pursue a liberal arts education, he studied philosophy at Williams College in Massachusetts. There, through the bonds of friendship in an active Newman Center, Bryan had a deep experience of Christ and the Church. During an influential junior-year abroad at Oxford University, he reconnected with the Jesuits and began a journey of discernment that led him to the novitiate in 2008. As a novice, he worked extensively with adolescents at Loyola High School in Detroit. After professing first vows, he spent four years of studies in Saint Louis, including a Master’s degree in Classics (Latin and Greek) at Washington University. As a Jesuit regent, Bryan taught classical languages and literature at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Since the summer of 2016, he has lived in France, studying theology at Centre Sèvres, the Jesuit faculty of Paris. During these years abroad, Bryan has collaborated closely with the Brothers of Saint John of God in their care for the sick. As a deacon, he has served regularly at St. Ignatius Church in Paris and at St. Peter’s Church in Saint Denis. This summer, after ordination, he will spend a pastoral month at his home parish in Brecksville. In the fall, Bryan will return to Paris to complete his Licentiate in Sacred Theology.
