Refuge Coffee Co. to open job training program for refugees

Nonprofit Refuge Coffee Co. has announced that it is opening a new location in the birthplace of Civil Rights Movement. CONTRIBUTED

Nonprofit Refuge Coffee Co. has announced that it is opening a new location in the birthplace of Civil Rights Movement. CONTRIBUTED

Refuge Coffee Co., a Clarkston-based nonprofit organization and coffee shop offering living-wage employment, mentorship and professional job training to refugees resettled in Georgia, announced it will open its doors – and arms – in Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn neighborhood, according to a press release.

This will be the first intown brick and mortar, and second location, for the company.

Refuge Coffee Co. will open January 2020 in the Daily World Building at 145 Auburn Avenue, a historic site in journalism and long-time home to our country’s longest running African-American daily newspaper, the Atlanta Daily World. Gene Kansas | Commercial Real Estate successfully led a historic preservation of the property in 2014, garnering the “#2 Win Nationally” for preservation as named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with Awards of Excellence in preservation from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission, The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Atlanta Preservation Center.

Sweet Auburn, as both birthplace to Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement, reinforces Refuge Coffee Co.’s ethos of inclusivity and social justice, offering a meaningful connection between the “Welcoming Community” and the “Beloved Community.”

“We are so proud to be partnering with Refuge Coffee Co.,” says Gene Kansas, “and hope others will join us in contributing to their programming. By supporting their goals, missions, and dreams, we all can make a positive difference in the world.”

Information: refugecoffeeco.com