A coffee shop that trains young adults with learning difficulties to become baristas has celebrated its one-year anniversary – and released a short film to mark the occasion.
The one-year birthday for Mahaba Café of Ealing’s inclusive coffee shop coincided with National Inclusion Week.
In that time, the café has gone from strength to strength, securing sponsors and partnership links with well-known charities and public bodies, including the National Lottery.
Last month was perhaps the café’s busiest month as they scooped up an award at the Young Ealing Awards, specifically in the Employability Project of the Year category.
But this is only just the beginning as the café’s founder and executive director, Muriel Walker Walckiers, is working to expand the café’s reach with the next step being to partner up with local schools for workshops as an additional access point for vocational and work-related learning.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary, Mahaba Café released a new short film celebrating its young people whilst calling on businesses in the Ealing borough to join the ‘Inclusion Revolution.’
This inspirational film is two-fold, celebrating not only the progress of these young people but also the wonderful work being done to redress the unemployment disparity for disabled individuals.
National inclusion week also saw the café team up with Mind Charity Shop, as well as other coffee shops local to the Ealing area to gives these workers a more robust and rounded experience of the hospitality industry as a whole.
This will in turn give them the tools needed to access gainful employment as part of an overall drive to turn around the staggering unemployment rate for people with disabilities, which currently stands at 97.8% in Ealing.
Steve Poole, Employment Services Manager at disabilities charity Ealing Mencap, is impressed by the extent of the café’s transformative power.
He said: “Mahaba Café ,with its hands-on training, has helped to develop new skills and improve the confidence of the young adults we support.”
The motivational impetus behind the founding of Mahaba Café of two best friends, Muriel and Lyndsey, who are both deeply passionate about championing diversity and inclusivity.
Muriel was working as a French teacher for many years beforehand and so had been exposed to varying levels of learning abilities and thus understood the barriers that neurodiverse people face.
In order to really make a difference to people’s lives, she left her teaching job to pursue this passion project.
She had no idea how this would pan out at the time, but attended a meeting at the Questors Theatre in Ealing to propose the opening of a café that would facilitate the needs of those with learning difficulties and other disabilities.
The proposal was warmly received and gained the necessary traction to secure the financial support of local businesses. Muriel sheds light on the initial development process, explaining:
“Coming up with a name for the café was the easiest part of the process; everything else took a bit more grunt work.
“The word ‘Mahaba’ is the Swahili translation for ‘love’ [Swahili is the official language of Kenya and Muriel had lived out in Kenya for many years] and since our café is all about spreading love and awareness; we needed a word that would truly befit the social ethos of our café.”
On how her café is able to cater to the diverse needs of its staff, Muriel said:
“Giving them a taste and insight into all the tasks involved and then letting them choose what station they’d like to work at, so that everyone is happy and comfortable with what they’re doing, whilst also giving them the option to try something that they didn’t think they’d be able to do.
“For example, some of our staff are more sociable than others so whilst they may choose to be the ones greeting the customers; others may prefer to work behind-the-scenes, either in the kitchen or stock room, preparing the snacks etc.
“When it comes to neurodiversity, its never a one-size-fits-all approach so its important to let them pick whilst always letting them know that the option is always there to try something else to supplement what they’re already good at.”
A recent graduate of the barista training programme, Ibraheem, said: “At Mahaba café, I feel confident and ready to go.
“I’m learning a lot. I’m also learning from my mistakes. I’m happy and I feel very fortunate to come here.”
Mahaba Cafe can be followed on Instagram @mahabacafe
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