Annual Report
Annual Impact Report | January 2024 - December 2024
Telling a more accurate and more beautiful refugee story to Metro Atlanta and beyond.
“Coffee is refuge for some of us… it’s the meshing of the worlds.”
Refuge Coffee is “such a simple way to impact everybody together… We need stuff like this, not just here in this country, all around the
world. It’s such a beautiful thing to think outside yourself and to help other people prosper. So cool.”
– Kelly Clarkson, from the Kelly Clarkson show
Our Mission
Refuge Coffee believes in the
power of welcome.
We work with and for our newcomer neighbors to
remove barriers that inherently exist for refugees
and immigrants, barriers that inhibit achieving equity, financial stability and independence, assimilation, participation in community,
and overall flourishing in their new home.
community events
Projects
Details
Impact
Project
Barista job training program
Details
Our job training goal is to
offer newly arrived
immigrants and other
refugees a place to
breathe and dream.
Impact
Trainees gain essential job training, cultural education, and support for obtaining a step-up job upon program
completion. Our commitment to a ‘competitive wage’ ensures graduates can earn a sustainable income and promotes financial stability.
Project
Hosting signature events
at our locations
Details
Our hosted events are intended to create opportunities to feature vendors and offer a fun, multi-ethnic comfortable gathering place.
Impact
This year we featured 197 local vendors at our events. Approximately 30% of the vendors were newcomer-owned small businesses or nonprofits which benefit newcomers.
Project
Partnering with other
local non-profits
Details
To serve, celebrate, beautify and grieve collectively with our Clarkston community.
Impact
We co-hosted 7 events with partners over the last year to widen our welcome to the city of Clarkston, “the most diverse square mile in the country”
and beyond.
Funding summary
Refuge Coffee has poured over half a millon dollars into our training program over the past 12 months.
“Refuge is more like a family. When I come to work, it doesn’t feel like work. Everyone here at Woodruff is so kind, so welcoming. I’m always greeted here with a bright smile.”
– Saliem, one of our baristas at Midtown
“I love Refuge very much. How is
my English now?”
– Sesayt, our newest barista in Clarkston who came to us speaking no English at all. She is
a rock star! In fact, so are Dawit
and Saliem!!
“It’s nice to have the reassurance
that Refuge Coffee has my back.
Not just mine, but all of us.”
– Dawit, one of our baristas at Midtown
This year, our Weekly Pour emails, telling a more accurate and more beautiful refugee story had 134,668 points of engagement with our readers.
Other social media engagement numbers
Reflections from Kitti
In 2024, our team at Refuge committed to the following theme:
We are staying the course on our mission of welcome by building stability in a culture of learning.
And we did just that. It was sometimes slow going, but over time, we saw the fruit of this approach. In a season of unprecedented economic and political instability, we grew our intention to become a
“hopeful landing place” in the form of jobs, relationships, celebrations, and support for our refugee employees, trainees, and for our entire community.
And now, in 2025—the year of our TENTH birthday!—we are poised to approach whatever comes our way, for our refugee neighbors and friends, with a new theme:
Courageous Welcome
What does that mean? We aren’t 100% certain, but as we look within to our team and without to those who support welcome at Refuge Coffee, we remain hopeful and resolute that this story isn’t over!
