Noticing Neighbors Worthy Pop Up Bar

There’s a new pop up bar coming to Kansas City, and it’s looking to fill you with a little self love. The Worthy Pop Up Bar is open from March 25th-26th in support of the idea that all people are worthy of love and healthy relationships. The space will include multiple lounge areas, specialty drinks, and a supportive environment for everyone to be reminded of their worth. The pop up is hosted by Newhouse, Kansas City’s first domestic violence shelter. Newhouse provides a place for those who have survived abuse to heal and transform their lives with safe housing, community, meals, childhood support as well as therapies. With the event benefiting Newhouse, it’s a unique opportunity to support this important cause—and have a fun time doing it! Rachel Hodgson sat down with me to share all about the Worthy event.

Hayley: I've never seen anything like this concept before. For people that are just learning about it, can you explain the upcoming Worthy Pop Up event?

Rachel: Yeah, I'm so excited to share about it today. So we have an upcoming event called our Worthy Pop Up Bar, and it's benefiting NewHouse. We are Kansas City's first domestic violence shelter. For anyone who doesn't know what a pop up bar is, just because we don't want to assume: it's a temporary event, a temporary space with a theme. We've seen all kinds of fun themes and pop up bars across Kansas City. But we at NewHouse decided we wanted to do one around the message of being worthy, and knowing that everyone is worthy. We believe that all people are worthy of love and healthy relationships. That is something that we are always trying to share, not only with our residents and clients who might come to NewHouse for support, but everyone out there. So instead of a holiday theme, or a more typical pop up bar, we are really excited to do this event around the idea of being worthy.

Hayley:

Without spoiling any surprises, what are some parts of the experience people will be excited to see?

Rachel: You are going to see some really fun special drinks! It’s a unique menu. You're going to see a really cool event space. It is going to be in Fire House KC, at about 45th and Troost, and it's a brand new space. So it was just restored from being Fire Station 31, and it's in the historic Hyde Park.

You are also going to get to meet some guest bartenders. These are different folks from Kansas City, people we consider leaders, joining us and actually serving up the drinks with love. So I'm not yet going to share who some of those folks are, but they are recognizable faces and we will be on our social media sharing them leading up to the event!

Hayley: It sounds like this has brought a lot of people together. Have there been any unexpected ways people have been willing to help behind the scenes?

Rachel:

Yeah, that's a great question. We have just been inundated with support for this. One of our event team members, Chris Stibbs, came up with this idea. From there, everyone has just rallied because we all can enjoy a good drink, and it's going to be that much more special when the room is filled with inspirational messages. Hayley: What does that look like? Rachel: The messages are what you're going to see around your tables, and throughout the room. Because of the importance of a healthy relationship with others and yourself, we are welcoming people who are single in a relationship.

We want everyone to join us. As far as unexpected surprises, it's been seeing the number of people who've raised their hands and said, yes, I want to be a bartender. We have people from all different sectors of Kansas City jumping in, wanting to be there, and wanting to share messages of worth and value. It's just been incredible to see people come around. And I can't help but give a little plug to some of our sponsors because we had First Federal Bank of KC, Central States Beverage Co., and Lander’s Visions. So we have these folks coming forward, as well as Fire House letting us have the space. They're donating drinks and they're donating support to spread the word. I mean, even just the fact that you're right here spreading the word with us. Everyone's looking for a way that they can get involved because it is a unique pop up theme.

Hayley:

If someone wants to attend, how do they get a ticket or what does that look like?

Rachel:

Yeah, so tickets are available online. You can go to the New House website to purchase, and follow along on our Facebook page, Instagram page to see updates. They'll be able to see some of our guest bartenders as we announce them.

Hayley:

So there's some news you can get ahead of time if you start following now as well.

Rachel:

Exactly.

Hayley:

Love that. Here’s a question I’m curious about: are there any habits you all have at NewHouse that help people feel worthy? How do you create that environment?

Rachel: One really good example of how we do that at New House is putting messages of love, value, worth around our shelter. So for Valentine's Day, we collected messages— for a $5 donation, people could send a note to be put up. Then we wrote it on a Valentine, and handed them out to folks who are staying with us, or who come to our outreach programs—and we also stuck them all around the shelter. People got to see over 300 hearts with messages fill the shelter, and I was one of the people who got to collect messages and handwrite what people had written in.

There was one message that was from someone who had been a survivor, had been on site at NewHouse and stayed there. She wrote this very long message to the person reading that said: You've already done the hardest part. You've left a dangerous situation. You are here for now, but this is just one day in the rest of your life.

I put it on a door, and when the resident pulled it off, she read it and she said, “This message was meant for me today. It was meant to be on my door right now.” It just touched me—to be able to help provide messages from past survivors to current ones, it speaks differently to you when you're in that space. Hayley: Yes, absolutely. Rachel: Putting those messages of love up and worth and value recently has really been big for us. But year-round, all the time, we try to have messages up. Our advocates are constantly trying to help our survivors know to never question their value and their worth. It's just as much about their relationship with themselves as others, and getting to be their healed true self. So we want people to heal and be their true self. Our job is to knock down some of those barriers to help end the cycle of abuse.

It's really about self love, self care, self worth. Anytime that we can put messages up around the hallways, and believe me, we do all the time—it's a great opportunity to remind someone that they are valuable.

Hayley: What does the team at Newhouse hope for the people coming to the pop up? What are you hoping that they leave with?

Rachel:

We hope that people come in droves. That they have a fantastic time, they enjoy the lounge area, they enjoy getting to find out who some of the guest bartenders are. They bring their friends, family, or just themselves.

We want to see all kinds of people walk in and be excited to see a room filled with love for them. It is all about them having a good experience, seeing their value and worth, and then knowing that with each drink they purchase—they are helping Newhouse support people who are coming to us for care, even the next day.

Donations help us provide meals, they help us provide safe housing, therapies, and support for children. One drink can do all of that.