Making friends, progress at Choices Cafe

Mike Moroski grew up on a golf course in Atlanta. Mike Rogers grew up in Cincinnati pool halls and ran away from home for the first time when he was just 9 years old. The unlikely pair found friendship and more on the streets of Over-the-Rhine, where they opened Choices Café, a coffee house with much more than caffeine on the menu.

Moroski, now dean of student life at Purcell Marian High School in Walnut Hills, visited Over-the-Rhine more than 10 years ago with students from Moeller, where he was working as an English teacher. During the project rehabbing a building in the neighborhood, he met Mike Rogers, a formerly homeless graduate of the Men’s Recovery Program of the Drop Inn Center.

The two men clicked. They discovered a shared passion for justice and affordable housing. They looked at their own friendship and wanted to offer others the same kind of opportunities to meet and work alongside people from different backgrounds and experiences.

They found a way to do just that in Choices Café, a non-profit on Elm Street. The space serves as more than a coffee shop. It’s a gathering place for artists and an outreach center for like-minded groups. By partnering with 3CDC, The Drop Inn Center, the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and the Peaslee Neighborhood Center, among other groups, Choices Café leaders embody their motto: “We are one.”

Current outreach programs include an Urban Plunge experience for high-school and college students as well as a HELP program to assist ex-offenders prepare for work.

Do Good:

• Donate. Make a secure donation to support Choices Café online.

• See a show. Dylan Sneed performs at Choices Café at 6 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 24.

• Facebook ‘em. “Like” Choices Café on Facebook.

By Elissa Yancey

Photo courtesy Choices Cafe.