About us
Our Vision
The Freedom Café is a nonprofit specialty café and collaborative space providing awareness events, education, training, and a simple way to fund the work needed to end human trafficking and the commercial exploitation of all people.
37 Main St, Durham
A café with a mission since 2012
Our mission
A café that invites action
The Freedom Café of Durham is a nonprofit specialty café dedicated to ending human trafficking and the commercial exploitation of all people.
The café provides a collaborative space that invites the local community to take ownership and action toward a slave-free world. Through presentations, discussion groups, and community events, we educate local citizens about the complexities of the issue and its root causes, the actions necessary to prevent it, and ways to support reputable organizations working toward a world where all people are free.
Our work
How we are making a difference
Engaging the Community
The Freedom Café provides an entry point for individuals and organizations to connect, learn, volunteer, and invest in the mission to create a traffic-free world.
Hosting the GIFT Box in New England
In collaboration with STOP THE TRAFFIK and UN.GIFT (the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking), we oversee placement and training for the New England GIFT Box: a walk-in piece of public art that raises awareness, educates, and empowers people to take action to stop human trafficking.
Funding the Movement
Through our pay-what-you-want café, we raise funds to support education and awareness programming, and provide grants to reputable nonprofits around the globe serving in prevention, legislation, intervention, and survivor aftercare.
Promoting Ethical Consumption and Resilient Communities
Human trafficking occurs among people of all backgrounds, yet it is inextricably linked to the exploitation of those in extreme poverty. As we shine a light on supply chains and offer fair and direct trade products, we support farmers and resilient communities around the globe, and inspire guests to become ethical consumers.
We have the power to make a different choice… We are all implicated in this problem. But that means we are all also part of its solution. Figuring out how to build a more just world is our work to do and our story to tell. So let us tell it the way we should have done from the very beginning. Let us tell this story together.