{"id":11235,"date":"2015-07-08T14:07:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T18:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11235"},"modified":"2015-07-15T17:54:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T21:54:11","slug":"local-entrepreneurs-brew-up-cups-of-coffee-and-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-entrepreneurs-brew-up-cups-of-coffee-and-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"Local entrepreneurs brew up cups of coffee — and pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Working hard on her daily grind, Courtney Drodge helps serve up plenty of fresh coffee \u2013 but with each cup of coffee comes a cup of fresh optimism for each partner at their coffee shop. <\/p>\n

The Aurora resident is manager of the new non-profit caf\u00e9 Our Indie Coffee Project, which officially opened in Newmarket last Thursday. The company\u2019s mandate is to provide the resources to help coffee kiosks spring up throughout York Region and South Simcoe to be owned and operated by persons with disabilities. <\/p>\n

Their first caf\u00e9, which is on Leslie Street, is a multipurpose effort, combining not only the caf\u00e9, but also their in-house coffee bean roastery and training centre. <\/p>\n

\u201cA group of individuals who have connections with adults with disabilities \u2013 developmental, intellectual, and Autism \u2013 came together and there was a real understanding amongst this group that there is something lacking after school and employment is very hard for these individuals,\u201d says Ms. Drodge. \u201cSome brainstorming happened and we came across Common Ground in Toronto. They have a really neat concept of adults with disabilities opening their kiosks, being partners in the business, and running the business as their own with a little bit of help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minds behind Our Indie Coffee Project, however, were prepared to take the concept one step further into a non-profit social enterprise combining it with the roastery. The money raised from selling their freshly roasted coffee to individuals and organizations is then funnelled back into the business to be used for the start-up costs for each kiosk and caf\u00e9. The idea is the individual cafes then become a for-profit business and all the money raised in their efforts go to the partners \u2013 the individuals with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people with disabilities end up doing a lot of volunteer work,\u201d says Ms. Drodge. \u201cIt is wonderful they are out there doing things like that, but we want to have them paid because there is dignity in work. There is the feeling of value when you get a paycheque at the end of the month. This way, because the caf\u00e9 is owned and operated by the partners, there is profit sharing. After all the expenses are subtracted at the end of the month, any profit left over is spread equally among the partners based on the time they were helping at the caf\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

This feeling of value is already being shared amongst the eight partners at the current Newmarket caf\u00e9. In connection with Community Living of South Simcoe, partners have come not just from York Region, but also Tottenham, Bradford, Vaughan and Oshawa.<\/p>\n

On site, the partners are honing their barista skills while also keeping an eye on opportunities to branch out. Ideal locations, says Ms. Drodge, include partnerships in municipal facilities like community centres and libraries, as well as medical and office buildings where people often stop for a coffee break.<\/p>\n

Soft-launched just over three months ago, in the lead-up to last week\u2019s grand opening, Ms. Drodge says she has been struck by the positive feedback their efforts have garnered. At the celebrations, she says many partners kept saying how \u201cthankful\u201d they were to have the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir word was how \u2018privileged\u2019 they were to work here and that kind of caught us off guard because they are amazing workers. Who wouldn\u2019t want them around?\u201d she says. \u201cThey do amazing work and it is very strange that the pride that work gives them [is something] they didn\u2019t feel before they came to work here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Drodge has a three-year background as a social service worker, helping with special needs clients of all ages. She simply likes people, she says, and in recognizing people that have \u201cbeen dealt a different hand in life\u201d it is important to also recognize the \u201cwhole person.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the enterprise gets off the ground, they are focusing on their \u201ctriple bottom line\u201d of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Their bags are compostable and recyclable, they try to generate as little garbage and emissions as possible, and their social and economic efforts can be best exemplified in their partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they getting out? Are they learning new skills? Are they interacting with people they otherwise wouldn\u2019t be interacting with? Just in the three months here, a few friendships form between partners and I am also seeing confidence levels increase in partners that have been very quiet and timid and have had trouble talking; they\u2019re now engaging customers and asking questions, or they are trying something new that they were not entirely sure about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also seen an increase in sales and partners being more ambitious in getting out there, doing a bit of marketing and really trying to make their business grow. It comes back to seeing the whole person and seeing the whole business. It is not just about the money, it is about all these other aspects as well. We\u2019re different, but different is good. Different allows all these great things to happen. Different doesn\u2019t mean bad, different is good. If you want something different, we\u2019re it \u2013 and different can be amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Profit sharing cafe concept provides new opportunities for persons living with special needs and disabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Vd","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 09:56:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-08-04.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}