Employees with different abilities thrive at Inspire Coffee House

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Inspire Coffee House recently opened back in January. It is part of Grace Church’s Mosaic program, which helps to empower people who have disabilities.

“First of all, we have some of the best coffee around and the best people,” Central Mosaic Pastor Joe Clarey said with a smile. “We employ individuals with disabilities here. We’re trying to create an environment where our people can learn, can grow, be developed, and discipled into the life of the workforce so that we can engage the community here in Greenville. People with different abilities still have the same experiences.”

Currently, Inspire employs 11 people who have disabilities. It offers a variety of handcrafted coffees, teas and specialty drinks, but it all started with a Keurig in one of the churches.

“We first started delivering coffee to people in the church with a Keurig, just one cup at a time,” Clarey explained. “That grew so much where we ended up having a room in the church where we had a little home espresso machine. They would make drinks, and we invite some of our community partners. The Gardens came in, and they would bring all their people, and we would serve them coffee and doughnuts and different pastries and stuff like that. We just saw how great it was and how our people loved it, and we’re like, ‘Hey, how can we make this come to fruition?'”

The coffee shop also offers pastries from Hobnob and Heroes, which is an organization that is “baking possibilities for adults with disabilities,” according to its website. We tried the delicious oatmeal cream pies.

The coffee shop is located inside of the clubhouse of Grace Church’s Front Porch Housing at 1433 Cleveland Street in Greenville. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

For more information, follow Inspire Coffee House on Facebook and Instagram.