A Chapel Hill nonprofit that has spent years borrowing church basements and pop-up counters for its programs just bought its first permanent home. B3, an organization serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, purchased ground-floor office condo units at 308 W. Rosemary Street in The Fountains building, a space previously occupied by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, with plans to open a clubhouse there in January 2027.
The purchase caps years of operating out of shared and borrowed spaces, according to The News & Observer. B3's pilot clubhouse launched in September out of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which has housed the nonprofit's life skills program and pilot clubhouse model, offering drop-in programs twice a week. The new Rosemary Street location will sit within walking distance or a bus ride of UNC-Chapel Hill, local businesses, libraries and other community spaces, and B3 plans to expand its drop-in programs to three times a week once the doors open.
To pay for renovations and furnishings, B3 launched a $150,000 “Opening Our Doors” fundraising campaign, according to Chapelboro. The Community Bridges Foundation is matching donations dollar for dollar up to $25,000, and the same funder, along with the Chapel of the Cross Seed Fund, helped finance the new space, per The News & Observer. How quickly the campaign fills out will determine whether the nonprofit stays on track for its January opening.
From a Student Coffee Cart to a 300-Member Nonprofit
B3 traces its roots to 2018, when it began as “Best Buddies Brews,” a student subcommittee within UNC-Chapel Hill's Best Buddies chapter, before incorporating as an independent nonprofit in 2020 under the name B3 — short for “Being, Belonging, and Becoming,” according to The Local Reporter. The News & Observer reports the organization was founded by three neurodivergent UNC-Chapel Hill students, and it now serves over 300 members with social events, life skills instruction, educational programs and transitional jobs programs.
Executive Director Jacklyn Boheler co-founded B3 alongside her spouse Greg Boheler and Hannah Steen while she was earning her master's degree in occupational therapy at UNC-Chapel Hill, an idea sparked by her undergraduate years working as a barista at an on-campus Starbucks, per UNC-Chapel Hill. Boheler told The News & Observer the new clubhouse is “an opportunity to create a place intentionally designed for community to happen.” Dan Gitterman, chair of B3's board of directors and a UNC professor of public policy, echoed that framing, saying people need places where they are known, valued, and empowered to contribute — not just places where they receive support.
Coffee Sales, Order Cards and a Library Kiosk
B3's best-known public face is its coffee operation, which runs a permanent kiosk in the Chapel Hill Public Library lobby with limited hours Thursday through Sunday, alongside a pop-up counter at the Innovate Carolina Junction co-working space downtown. To accommodate nonspeaking interns who wanted to take customer orders, the nonprofit introduced custom drink-selection cards that let patrons write down their preferences instead of relying on spoken exchanges, UNC-Chapel Hill's reporting notes. Sales revenue from coffee and catering helps pay staff wages, and the coffee side of the operation is self-sustaining.
Sam Wagner, a B3 member, told The News & Observer the clubhouse creates a safe space to meet people without fear of judgment and to do fun activities together. The clubhouse will offer spaces to meet friends, work on projects, and learn, and B3 also opens memberships to neurotypical adults called allies, who can drop in during clubhouse hours, volunteer with life skills programs, or join a transitional employment disability allyship pathway. The nonprofit funds its programs through grants, program fees and donations, and it offers financial assistance and scholarships to members who cannot afford fees; some members also use Medicaid funding to cover eligible program costs.
A Statewide Gap in Jobs and Support
B3's push for a dedicated clubhouse lands against a backdrop of thin employment and support options for adults with disabilities statewide. In North Carolina, only 15% to 37% of working-age adults with disabilities are employed in competitive integrated settings — jobs paying market wages alongside non-disabled peers — compared with roughly 80% of adults without disabilities, according to The Arc of Greensboro. The state also maintains a multi-year waitlist, called the Registry of Unmet Needs, for the NC Innovations Waiver, the primary Medicaid waiver funding long-term community living supports and job coaching for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, per NC Medicaid.
Compounding those gaps, a 2024 report by The Arc of North Carolina estimated the state faces a shortage of at least 20,000 direct support professionals needed to care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as reported by North Carolina Health News. B3 also draws on university clinical partnerships to strengthen its programming: graduate students from Duke University's Occupational Therapy Doctorate program design and facilitate group interventions for B3 members focused on life skills, community navigation, and social planning, according to Duke University School of Medicine.
Nearby in Carrboro, Extraordinary Ventures runs laundry and cleaning services along with the Extraordinary Thrift store as part of a broader nonprofit mission to teach job skills and build self-sustaining businesses and job opportunities for people with disabilities. B3 leaders describe their planned clubhouse in similar terms: a welcoming, accessible third space meant to help adults transition from high school into adulthood, and to grow its programs well beyond the borrowed rooms and pop-up counters that have carried the nonprofit since 2018.
