London coffee roasters with a social purpose

Sophie Lewis, 23, is SEND's head of operations.

She said: "SEND Coffee is a nonprofit organisation set up to help young adults with disabilities from roughly 18 to 25 years old make that tricky transition from being a young adult to an independent adult, navigating the world of employment."

Each September, SEND take on a new batch of baristas and train them up to Specialist Coffee Association Standards over a two-year course.  

Learners begin at the team's Camden training space before moving on to one of three shops where they work closely with mentors.

There they will develop not just customer service skills but speciality coffee knowledge and transition into an independent shift pattern.

The second year of the course then takes a focus on employment with bank accounts set up, CV workshops, and a focus on interview technique.

Ty said: “They need to trust you, for them to let you guide them.”

However, there are also other behaviours Ty is not afraid to be firm with.

He added: “One of the learners was very, very childish.

“They required a lot of attention, and if I was working with a group of people and I was speaking to another learner they would get jealous and they would do things to act up.

“So my approach with that learner was to be quite strict with the attention seeking behaviour and to and to get that learner to understand that route isn't going to get you the positive attention that you're looking for.”

HASHIM'S STORY

Hashim Elahi, 23, is a young man with Downs Syndrome who graduated from the scheme in September.

The first coffee he made at a SEND site was a mocha but his favourite is a flat white.

He said: "I took time to work it out but when you steam the milk you have to be focused on the steaming and not anywhere else."

With SEND he learnt different coffees and their cup sizes, and how to take orders, but also knife skills and customer service.

He said: "I have to show customers I am good at this."

The key for Hashim is body language: eye contact and face to face.

In September he received his first pay check and intended to use the funds to purchase a new wrestling game.

However, he was quick to make clear he does not play games at work.

He said: "I have to focus on my work first and then go home and play."

That focus is something instilled in him as he made quite clear his position on phones in the work place.

He added: "If you are on the phone doing nothing you have to look first.

"Look what jobs are there and you do it. Don't be on your phone."

Yet, SEND does not intend to serve as a safe haven for their trainees; the goal is to get them jobs out in the industry.

Hashim shared a special bond with Ty and said how much he enjoyed working with him.

However, for Ty any longing for Hashim to remain with SEND would be for purely selfish reasons.

He said: “I would love to still have Hashim here, because he just brightens anyone's day, but when Hashim gets his first job that's going to make me a lot happier than having him back here with me.

“The knowing that they're kind of set up to be independent. That's the real win."

SEND do however help graduates with an integration process into their new roles as Ty did with Chloe, a young person with autism.

He said: “Despite the fact that she was a very talented barista when it came down to the interview process, it was quite hard for her to be able to convey her skill set, because her lack of communication skills would often make people think that she wasn't quite as capable as she was.

“I kind of took it upon myself to be like, look, just bring her in for a trial. I can be here as a go between to help you communicate with her. But once she knows what she's doing and she knows the routine, she’s good to go.”

Through this approach he got her a role in a council building and would regularly check in.

He added: “I'd speak to the team and see if there were any issues that they were having communicating with her. And if they were having issues, I would give them tips on how to resolve them.

“I think going into your first job for anyone is always going to be a little bit daunting. So if you have neuro-divergence that could potentially add to the alienation you might feel in a new team, and then often add to the anxiety.

“So I think it's quite important to kind of support them into these new roles and help them to just feel a little bit more at home because it can be a daunting experience."

One of the biggest challenges Ty remembers from his time with Chloe is travel training, where SEND take trainees out on London's transport network.

He said: “She was someone who was really reluctant to do any of the travel training.

“But once she learned that she was able to keep herself safe she loved to travel alone. One of the things she loved about her job the most was that was it was quite far away from her house.

“So it meant that she got to travel all the way to work and then travel all the way back on her own.

“There would be times where I would see her on her journey, as she'd go through Highbury and Islington, and I'd go through it as well on my way to work, so often I'd see her just on her merry way, it would fill me with joy.

“But the big win from that was, when I went to visit her about a month or so after she started that job. I asked her what she was doing with her money.

“And she had recently booked a trip to Saint Lucia, which she paid for largely from her own wages.

“I was just so proud of her. It was incredible to see this person who literally wouldn't cross the road on her own say, I've got a trip to Saint Lucia. That was wild.”

"I'd see her just on her merry way, it would fill me with joy."

SEND’s coffee shops do not serve as quiet sanctuaries from which learners develop their skills.

Their locations are busy.

Whether its students in Hackney Wick at Clarnico Club, commuters at Camden Road’s Hidden Coffee or city slickers in Leadenhall’s Curator’s Coffee Studio, SEND trainees face a diverse customer base.

But the staff at SEND are articulate and intelligible. Amongst the ranks of the mentors are a PhD student and a yoga teacher.

Sophie has three degrees and has also learnt British Sign Language (BSL) a skill SEND are keen to pass on to their trainees.

Having learnt Makaton, another communication tool, to interact with her Downs Syndrome brother, she then went on to learn BSL when joining SEND and engaging with deaf colleagues.

Sophie said: “It’s a whole incredible world and language and cultural system and it's amazing to have access to.

“Our baristas are incredibly quick and clever and they’ve picked it up from people who are deaf. It’s wonderful to go into the shops and see them all signing away."  

SEND also often offer a free coffee to customers who order in sign.

She said: “It's a small gesture, but I think it increases visibility around BSL and signing. It means we've had a number of customers with that come in, and just to ask them 'how they are' is really important. It's something we ask our hearing customers everyday.”

"It’s wonderful to go into the shops and see them all signing away."

"It's something we ask our hearing customers everyday.”

The idea of combining the market with a form of paternalism is not a new one.

David (now Lord) Cameron’s ‘big society’, put a real focus on social enterprise and community activism.

Had it ever transpired it would find its sanctuary at this coffee roasters based in Camden.

However, Cameron’s plan never materialised, an austerity cut before it ever had funding, to be replaced with talk of scrounger culture.

Opinion now prevails that benefits claimants supposedly choose not to have a job and have no interest in being provided with the tools to get one.

This most recently resurfaced at the Autumn Statement.

Yet most recent statistics do not give the impression of a fair economy.

They show a disability pay gap of 13.8% albeit despite a huge fall in London to just 6.5%.

But that pay gap means a disabled individual would only earn £30,380, compared to their non-disabled counterpart on the average wage of £35,000.

It is this differential that SEND are working to overcome.

The home page of their website reads: “We believe that our learners can’t just enter the job market by scraping in with the bare minimum – in order to have a fair shot they need to be equipped with the best in class barista skills to overcome the prejudice they’ll experience."

With regard to scrounger culture Ty said: "I think we need to be very wary of that snowballing because I think those kind narratives can get really, really dark, really, really quickly.

"The whole scrounger thing is is horrible. Is horrible full stop. Because I don't think anyone wants to scrounge.

"That's not what anyone's favourite thing to do is: to sit at home and do nothing all day.

"I think, especially as people with disabilities go, it's very harsh, and it's very toxic to suggest that anyone is looking to do that like that's their preferred course of action.

"In my experience, that's very much not the case."

“The baristas that we produce are high-end baristas. They're very, very talented."

Ty believes that national and local government should instead do more to promote the work of social enterprises such as themselves.

Though they have no formal partnerships SEND have previously worked with Hackney and Newham Councils and will this year work with Waltham Forest to promote the course within colleges.

But for those who wish to help, Ty said: “The main way to support is to come into the shops, see the quality of the work that the learners are producing and spread the word about it.

“Buy our amazing coffee. The coffee is genuinely stunning.

“With social enterprises, there's a bit of a perception that there's going to be a quality drop off, especially if there’s a charitable element.

“But, that's very much not the case with us. The work that we do to produce the coffee is amazing and to serve the coffee.

“And the work that the learners do is also amazing.

“The baristas that we produce are high-end baristas. They're very, very talented.

“So come in, bear witness, enjoy the coffee and spread the word.”

All pictures taken by Joseph Walsh or otherwise stated.