CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — When you first see the Hickory Trading Company in Chesapeake, it seems like your typical coffee shop full of knick knacks and hot drinks, but you quickly learn it’s something special.

Marissa Kardos can tell how special it is. She just started training in January.

“I told Patti earlier this morning, I think I found my home.”

Marissa had a hard time finding employment after dropping out of college. She says it became too much to handle, and she was diagnosed with Autism last year.

Her mother found out about the Hickory Trading Company and the non-profit it funds, the Hitching Post.

“It’s a place of opportunity. It’s to pull out potential in each one of our students and each other. We’re all on this journey of learning and becoming who we need to be,” said owner and founder Patti Howell.

Howell started the business two years ago after deciding to follow her dreams of creating an educational center for adults and teens with disabilities. She says the idea came to her at church one Sunday, and after thinking it over, she quit her job as an educator and started the business.

Howell says the center provides job training, tutoring and advocates for those with disabilities.

“Our second mission is to change community perception of what it means to have a disability or interact with someone with a disability. You come into this place, grab a cup of coffee, you’re going to have a great experience,” she said.

Those who use the center’s job training use the coffee shop to learn.

“A lot of times when it’s a first time customer, they’re at the door, they look around and say, what is this place?” Howell said.

Howell has seen how the coffee shop’s provided a sort of haven for the community.

They host a “Tabletop Thursday’ game night every week, where dozens of people come to hang out.

Marissa agrees that it’s helped her fit in.

“It’s made it so I’m not isolated in life anymore. The only other person who truly gets me is my mom and now, I’m around people like me. There’s nothing I can say in words that gives me that,” she said.

Marissa says she wants to own her own business one day, and the center can give her valuable experience.

To learn more about the Hickory Trading Company or the Hitching Post, click here.