Behind every cup of coffee from this coffee shop is a message of hope: it’s okay not to be okay.
Sip of Hope is a coffee shop located in the Chicago neighborhood Logan Square. It’s the first coffee shop in the world so dedicated to proactive suicide prevention and mental health education that it donates 100% of its proceeds to those causes.
I went there with a friend after she gave me a rubber bracelet from the coffee shop. We got some tea and the employees there gave me a bag of bracelets I had requested for my residents and students.
Whenever I wear the bracelet I seem to have good days. I don’t know if it’s all in my head. But it’s a good reminder to keep going and hold onto hope when things don’t go as planned.
The atmosphere in the café is calm and welcoming. It feels nothing like the busy Starbucks, where you are given your drink in to-go paper and plastic that seem to tell you to get out as soon as possible.
There are handouts right in the doorway and on a table inside Sip of Hope for you to look at and take. They’re from organizations offering mental health support, sexual violence support, support for youth and the LGBTQIA community, and the suicide prevention hotline number.
Sip of Hope is encouraging all of us to talk about mental health. By breaking the silence, by telling each other that it’s okay not to be okay and that there are people who care and can help, we can be proactive in preventing suicide.
And getting a cup of coffee from Sip of Hope is a simple way to start that conversation.