Life Unlimited is employing disabled adults for new coffee shop, Latte Life

Latte Life’s storefront // Courtesy Stevie Rose

Everybody deserves a seat at the table. Or a position behind the cash register, waiting tables, or working any kind of job that suits them.

Life Unlimited, a local nonprofit organization, is opening a new coffee shop, the great equalizer of us all, in North Kansas City on October 12, where they will be employing adults with disabilities in order for them to learn the soft and hard skills of customer service jobs.

Life Unlimited is no stranger to helping the community. The nonprofit has been providing housing and supportive services for over 50 years for adults with developmental disabilities, including day habilitation programs and workforce development. Their service footprint stretches across 12 counties, with more than 70 homes and about 530 employees.

Courtesy Stevie Rose

Emily Morgan, the Vice President of External Communications, says, “The vast majority of our employees are in the community. If you go down to Union Station every day of the week, you’re gonna see a Life Unlimited van or bus.” She emphasizes that the adults in their programs are out in the community, volunteering, working, getting behind-the-scenes tours, and overall having productive and fun days.

“Our mission, our vision, our deep, deep passion is that everybody deserves the right to choice, independence, and dignity,” Morgan continues. “To that end, we have seen a lot of barriers for adults with disabilities trying to get quality employment and job training, so much so that we decided to create this concept.”

Latte Life will be a fully functioning coffee shop, complete with delicious café drinks, non-caffeinated beverages, light pastries, and all sorts of cozy goodies. The space is large enough to sit and work by yourself, catch up with a friend, or conduct a meeting in a warm environment.

The coffee shop is an intentional collaboration between multiple businesses in the area.

The architecture, construction, and finishings were all provided by local firms, and the coffee beans themselves will be from Provis Coffee Roasters and Northlandia Coffee Roasting Co. Provis will even be sending their baristas to Latte Life to help with training. The employment will be a cohort-style of learning, where four individuals with disabilities will learn skills for four months to help them enter the workforce.

A sitting area of Latte Life // Courtesy Stevie Rose

“I don’t know about you, but sometimes I also need help in coaching, talking with people, working at a cash register, or what have you,” Morgan says with a laugh. “But the idea is that this cohort, this academy, is really a launchpad into greater community employment.” The goal for Latte Life is that the people they help are able to feel like they’ve gotten proper training and feel confident to work wherever they may want to.

With cuts to services like Medicaid and Medicare looming in the future, people with disabilities need support now. Latte Life, along with Life Unlimited’s thrift store, Unlimited Thrift, is doing just that.

“A large part of what we want to do is educating our community that we all deserve these things,” Morgan says. “Any opportunity to give back to our individuals and make sure they have quality housing, quality employment, quality lives–we’d be remiss if we didn’t explore some of these opportunities.”

Latte Life opens October 12, 2026, at 318 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, MO 64116.