Downtown CREDO Coffee continues sourceing, roasting and selling direct - trade coffee under new ownership and a new name: CREDO Coffee Roasting.
Downtown CREDO began in 2010 as a 501c(3) non-profit with a mission to improve the quality of lives in our nations cities by cultivating networks of meaning, impact and community. By 2018 CREDO had grown into four coffee shops operated under one Benefit Corpporation, an eleven thousand square foot co-working society and an international social enterprise accelerator. What began as three divisions of one grassroots non-profit grew into two companies and a non-profit impacting people in Orlando and around the world. All the while instigated by the CREDO…
Life is worth living. I refuse to merely exist. I pursue a life of meaning and purpose, fulfillment and joy. The world is not yet as it ought to be. Neither is my city. Neither am I. Yet, I reject apathy and despair. I engage the world, my city, and myself to make an impact for good. I am not alone. I press through narcissism, isolation and self-sufficiency striving to live in authentic community.
Downtown CREDO established its board and initial partnerships in the spring of 2010. These partnerships included five local charities already doing great work, and a network of coffee growers in Guatemala. In January of 2011 the first donations only coffee shop was established in College Park, Orlando. Quickly after that we narrowed the focus of our local partnerships to the Parramore Corridor of Neighborhoods and added a second direct-trade source for coffee.
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Very quickly the challenging work of network cultivation was organized into three divisions: Coffee, Rally, Conduit. Each of these divisions focused on creating opportunities for folks to not only be introduced to a life animated by the CREDO, but to step into the growing web of people who committed to it. The Rally division initially focused on serving select partner charities to impact the city for good and cultivate community. Partners included the Downtown and Parramore Branches of Central Florida Boys and Girls Clubs, New Image Youth Center, Keeping Orlando Beautiful, and Green Up Orlando. Downtown Credo invited members of the city to join in events (both one-time and on-going) which CREDO planned and executed on their behalf. We built and maintained vegetable gardens, cleaned up streets, hosted dinner co-ops, refurbished playgrounds, tutored kids, networked resources, and built real relationships.
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The Coffee division focused on inviting people into lives of global impact and community through direct-trade coffee. Downtown Credo operated four donation's only coffee shops as something more than one more opportunity to be an autonomous consumer, separated from people and means of production. CREDO Coffee committed to challenging people to name their price. As they assigned a value to their coffee, they became more conscious of where their money went and were invited to consider the impact it made.
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The third division was Conduit. Credo Conduit began by creating opportunities to equip, connect and feature creative endeavors that engage people into lives of meaning, impact and community. Through the Conduit Division, Downtown Credo featured artists and musicians who inspire people to live with meaning. It also organized and executed free skill workshops.
Through it’s three divisions, Downtown CREDO involved thousands of people in projects ranging from cooking classes, trash clean ups, vegetable gardening and playground refurbishing to design thinking, writing and embroidery workshops, to songwriters stage competitions and featured artist openings.
The aggregate of Downtown Credo's efforts became a bourgeoning network of people in Orlando from all walks of life embracing their impact for good both locally and globally, doing their best to live with meaning, and developing into an authentic community.