Pawtucket’s Newest Coffee Shop is a Force for Good
LIFE Cafe, now open at Shri, offers workforce training opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
August 20, 2024
Early on a Monday morning, residents of the nearby apartments above Shri yoga studio sit in the newly opened LIFE Cafe enjoying coffees and breakfast. One resident looks up from his sausage, egg and cheese to tell Shri founder Alison Bologna how much he was looking forward to this day.
“I was waiting for this day since October when you originally were supposed to open. I was excited,” he says between bites of his sandwich.
LIFE Cafe is the newest addition to the Pawtucket property that includes a yoga studio, apartments and administrative offices as well as a food pantry operated by the Segue Institute for Learning and the Flying Shuttles art studio for people with intellectual and development disabilities. The whole thing is the brainchild of Alison Bologna, the WJAR broadcast journalist and social entrepreneur who founded Shri in 2010. Founded as a yoga outreach program to bring yoga to people of all backgrounds, the organization in recent years has taken on the redevelopment of 390 Pine St., a historic building that now serves as home base. Bologna recalls how she came up with the idea to host LIFE Cafe in an unused garage on the property over lunch.
