- SOAR Cafe & Farms was founded in 2017 when Michelle Cochran found a need for female victims of sexual abuse, addiction, and human trafficking in her community to be mentored and cared for.
- SOAR recently bought Anna's Gifts & Home Decor, which will be the future location for SOAR Cafe, a co-working space, and offices for the SOAR team to utilize.
The cafe behind me was a Jackson favorite for 38 years, and is being transformed into a safe space for women in need to soar.
It was back in 2017, when the woman dating Michelle Cochran's son ended up in prison. This firsthand experience opened Cochran's eyes when she began to regularly visit her regularly in prison. She found that the women in prison had common backgrounds, abuse, trauma, human trafficking, and addiction.
"Going to visit her, what I learned and saw was a lot of women sitting in the same circumstance that she had...were in need of help. Just being present with her and helping her walk through that in a mentoring relationship causing growth and healing, and I wanted to expound on that," Cochran reflected.
For that reason, she founded SOAR Cafe & Farms, which offers survivors and victims a residential program, education, counseling, and coaching. So far, SOAR has helped over 150 women in Jackson. That mission is expanding. The team's purchased a Jackson favorite: Anna's Gifts and Home Decor.
Board Member, Mary Garcia, added, "It was almost a perfect fit, because the reputation that Anna's had was so good. When we started talking to people about the possibility of buying this building, everyone was so excited to be able to come back to Anna's for breakfast or lunch."
SOAR Cafe will have a cafe with both sit-down and grab-and-go items, office spaces for the team, a conference room, and a co-working space, and is planned to be open in May of 2024.
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