photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

This area, pictured on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, in the Pinckney building will be turned into a coffee stop run by students participating in the Community Transition program for young adults.

A student-centered coffee shop will be opening at Community Connections at Pinckney next week.

The coffee shop, known as “Empowering Brew,” will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 22, at Community Connections at Pinckney, 810 West Sixth St., with a tentative time of 10 a.m.

After the grand opening, the coffee shop is expected to operate Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be parking available outside of the shop as well as drive-up ordering. Credit cards and cash will be accepted.

The coffee shop will give the participating students hands-on work experience, providing customer service, communication and teamwork skills. It will also help them reach job readiness to achieve successful employment after high school.

Jenna Viscomi, principal of Community Connections at Pinckney, told school board members at their meeting on Monday that this has been a dream for the last four years to make this coffee shop a reality.

“Just within the last few months, everything has taken off, and off we went to the races,” Viscomi said. ” … Empowering Brew is about much more than serving a great cup of coffee. It’s about creating authentic work experiences for our young adults with disabilities and helping them develop the skills they need to be successful after high school.”

Viscomi said the coffee shop will offer specialty drinks, and the featured drink for the grand opening will be a “Rock Chalk Marshmallow Mocha.”

The Big 12/College Football Foundation in partnership with the Lawrence Schools Foundation have recently helped complete upgrades for the coffee shop and an outdoor seating area, according to Monday’s agenda.

As the Journal-World reported, the former Pinckney Elementary School now houses the Community Transition or C-Tran program after it was one of two elementary schools that closed in 2023. The C-Tran provides workplace and independent living skills training and special education services for people ages 18 to 21.

In addition to the coffee shop, there is also a bakery, which has been operating since the start of the 2025-2026 school year. Each baked good is made from scratch by the students at Pinckney with locally-sourced grains and shipped out to all the school district’s schools every morning.