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Our Story
The Back Story
The South Side of Columbus is experiencing significant transformation after decades of disinvestment. Community Development for All People (CD4AP) has played a key role in that transformation, working to build a sustainable, mixed income community that preserves the rich diversity of the neighborhood. Rather than focus on what is missing from the neighborhood, we work with residents to create a positive vision for the neighborhood and assemble the assets to make it a reality. As part of that vision, CD4AP is focused on improving the social determinants of health for South Side residents, building affordable housing and providing key programming to help people achieve their hopes, dreams and aspirations
The South End Cafe
CD4AP is in the process of launching a social enterprise called the South End Cafe. The Cafe is designed to provide good-paying jobs to those who are having a hard time finding employment, such as returning citizens and those who have been out of the workforce for an extended period of time. Positions in the Cafe will be offered to people without prior experience, and employees will be gain a work history and practical training in both soft and hard job skills that they will leverage into future employment opportunities. We will create relationships with South Side employers with the goal that they will recruit from our staff for any full-time employment opportunities.
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The Cafe will also offer affordable, healthy meals in a neighborhood where access to healthy food is limited. As the area around the Cafe continues to develop, it is important to have places that are affordable and accessible for people with low income. In addition, the Cafe will provide a place for community members to gather for meetings, activities, and socialization. This so-called “third place” is where people come together to build relationships, are critical in achieving community transformation, and CD4AP has made the creation of such places a priority in our work.
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The Cafe, located at 1951 Parsons Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, is part of a larger housing development called the South End Hotel Apartments that CD4AP is developing in partnership with the Kelley Companies, a local developer. The South End Hotel will preserve a building of 24 apartments as affordable housing units. The combined South End Hotel Apartments and South End Cafe are anticipated to spur additional redevelopment of both affordable housing and retail space in the area.
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The South End Cafe will be the third social enterprise CD4AP has created. The first, Bikes for All People, which launched in 2014, is a full-service bike shop that provides affordable, reliable, and predictable services and support for all bicyclists in our neighborhood and beyond. The second, All People Arts, which launched in 2018, is an art gallery that provides quality art experiences that connect with people across barriers of age, socio-economic circumstances, size, ability, sexual orientation, and identification (racial, ethnic, cultural, or gender).