Building Update

As we come upon the two-year anniversary of our Magnolia Avenue home and office base, we are reflecting on the transformation of the building and the impact it has had on Raising a Voice since its purchase in 2018. Even though the team was originally planning on renting out a building just across the street, when our 1209 Magnolia home became available, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

For the past two years, our team has spent most of our time cleaning out the space to prepare for our offices and the Likewise coffee shop, while still keeping the building as original as possible. The building is well over one hundred years old and has served its purpose well over the years. We wanted to maintain its vintage charm while bringing it to life in a new way.

As of today, we are in the final stages of renovation. We hope that the outside will be finished within the next month to six weeks and that our last checklist of projects for the inside will be coming to a close around the same time. Once all our furniture is in and arranged to our liking, we hope to start the process of opening to the public.

Our upstairs will serve as our home-base and office space for the Raising a Voice team. We will be able to use the space for all of our administration work and meetings, as well as, renting out extra office space to those in the community. Our downstairs will function as the Likewise coffee shop, which is wholly owned by Raising a Voice. We hope that this space will serve as a place of community for those in Knoxville. While Likewise will function the same as any other coffee shop, one hundred percent of the profits will go towards Raising a Voice.

We want to create a safe and open place for people who live in the area to come hang out. We’d love for people who live outside the community to come see what we’re about and learn more about the East Knoxville area we call home. We are looking forward to being able to spread the word about Raising a Voice and the impact the organization has had on the community.

We hope to open our doors to the public in August, once we have completed our last punch-list items. We have loved reflecting on these last two years and we can’t wait for everyone to see the progress that we’ve made. We look forward to seeing everyone using this amazing space at the end of summer!