Jay and Katherine Wolf, the internationally recognized duo behind influential faith-based disability advocacy group Hope Heals, is set to open their flagship coffee and retail concept, Mend Coffee, this fall in the former Marcellos space in North Buckhead’s Tuxedo Festival shopping center at 3655 Roswell Rd NE.
“In our second-chance life with disability, healing hasn’t always looked the way that we thought it would. But we have received soul-deep healing by being invited into places of belonging and belovedness. So we’re making a one-of-a-kind sacred space where everyone has a seat at the table. Because we believe that hospitality heals. And that TRUE hospitality is accessibility,” Katherine and Jay told What Now Atlanta by email.
The couple continues, “What began as this very online community of suffering people has since expanded into books, speaking events, respite gatherings, and Hope Heals Camp. Now, after over a decade of serving the disabled population and living this reality ourselves, our ethos of hope is taking the form of MEND, a coffee shop, retail concept, and community hub that will offer dignifying employment to adults with disabilities, as well as beautiful accessibility-first spaces for gathering, working, and celebrating.”
It’s a mission held close to the Wolfs’ heart, as Katherine experienced a near-fatal stroke in 2008, leaving her partially paralyzed and wheelchair bound. As a result, in that same year the couple started Hope Heals, an advocacy group through which Jay and Katherine can “disrupt the myth that joy can only be found in a pain-free life.”
“In the most unexpected ways, we’ve found the tragedy that wounded us has, in fact, become the triumph that healed our souls,” say Katherine and Jay. “The very thing that broke us would also MEND us into stronger, more resilient people. Those scars and seams where the broken pieces were repaired now remind us that we survived.”
To find out more about the project, you visit www.mendcoffee.org.
