While a cup of joe from Cafe Joyeux is a normal experience in European cities, this radical and tremendous coffee chain just opened its doors in the Big Apple.
Located at 599 Lexington Avenue, East 52nd Street, the first American Cafe Joyeux employs crew members with intellectual and developmental disabilities, empowering them through meaningful training and employment.
With Autism Awareness Day having just passed, it’s the perfect time to go for a coffee there.
It’s a beautiful thing to see the average Joe helping out his neuro-divergent neighbors, but as humans are a communal species of social primates, few things can empower a person as much as the vote of confidence that they are worthy and capable of performing gainful, meaningful employment.
To that end, and whether it’s broad-spectrum autism or Down Syndrome, the staff at Cafe Joyeux are trained and expected to perform like any other employee, something which Rachael Barcelona told CBS News “changed her life.”
“I’ve been rejected so many times and told I was a burden because of my autism,” she said, describing the shock she had when someone offered her a job, “and I was going to get paid too!”
Founded by a French social entrepreneur, there are 20 Cafe Joyeux across the Old World, a number most Americans will agree would be joyeux to see here Stateside.
WATCH the story from CBS’ ‘Heart of America’… To Viewers Outside the US, WATCH here…
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