Icm - City of Hope

Safehouse Coffee Roasters is owned and operated by ICM-City of Hope, Inc., a faith based not-for-profit 501c3 organization registered with the State of Georgia since 2003. While our purpose and mission are driven and informed by our deeply held Christian faith, the ways in which we affect our communities don’t look like the church service on Sunday morning with which most people are familiar.

At the core of our mission is the belief that we can be a catalyst for positive change in individuals, families, businesses, and communities. Unlike most non-profits, we chose years ago not to merchandise on the story of our mission through the coffee house and roastery, but instead to sell coffee through the time-tested tenets of high quality and sincere personal customer service. Part of this decision to sell the coffee instead of the missional story, is due to the highly private, confidential nature of so much of our ministerial work.

Addictions Recovery

Christ-centered residential addictions recovery is always very dear to our hearts and we support those ministries through interventions and program referrals for families and individuals that are being tortured by the malicious disease of chemical addiction. 

Prescription Assistance

We are blessed to be able to support a double-blind prescription buying ministry through relationships with local pharmacists. These pharmacists are in a position to know who is in dire need of medication and for various reasons, but are not able to purchase it. For example, often there are elderly patients that need a refill of a medication but cannot buy it because they are on a fixed income and their social security or pension check has not come in, so they go without. In cases like these, the pharmacist can draw from our pool of benevolence funds to pay for those medications and call the patient to inform them that their prescription is ready to be picked up. We do not advertise this program, the patients do not know who paid for their medicine, and due to HIPAA laws, we do not know whose prescriptions have been bought. Sometimes these prescriptions are for the elderly, sometimes for veterans, sometimes for single parents, and sometimes for children. Through these trusted pharmacists, the relational community of the Church is at work. 

Widows and Orphans

We find ways to minister to widows and orphans in similar financial circumstances. A roof patched here, a septic system pumped there, a wheelchair-accessible ramp installed, a vehicle repaired; such is the fabric of life and it is our honor to stand in the gap of need as is our privilege and responsibility as believers. During 2015, we were able to supply a dollar of benevolence for every pound of coffee we roasted, both retail and wholesale.

Family Support Through Purchasing Power

Even our selection of the specialty coffee industry within which we do our work was not simply a matter of personal fascination. Almost everywhere that is suitable to grow coffee is also suitable to grow any number of illicit drugs. There is often pressure put upon coffee farming families from drug lords to tear out their coffee plants and grow these drug-producing crops in a form of forced agricultural slavery. But if a family's high-quality coffee is bought at a premium price, they are much more likely to remain financially stable and above the dire straits that drug lords use to leverage them into growing drugs. Because of this, we use our coffee inventory purchasing power to bolster these families and limit their vulnerability to the encroaching drug trade.

Business Leadership Support

Safehouse Coffee Roasters’ location was chosen as an anchor business for our once-abandoned downtown. Over the last decade, we have seen downtown Griffin transform from a shuttered ghost town to a vibrant and constantly growing enclave for local business and community involvement. We do not take responsibility for this transformation, but we are humbly grateful to be a part of it. Within the physical building of Safehouse Coffee Roasters itself, we have incubated many locally-owned businesses and employed many people in the safe, encouraging, and uplifting environment that all of our employees and guests value so highly.

For more information about ICM - City of Hope please contact Hunt Slade using the form below.