About Us

The Office of National Statistics (2019) states that only 0.8% of people ages 16-64 with severe learning disabilities are in any type of employment.
 

My name is Jennie Kettell and I am the founder of this social enterprise. 

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I came up with the idea of having a coffee van for young people with severe/specific learning disabilities after looking at what is 'out there' for my daughter to do when she leaves school. My daughter, Jessica is 18 years old and is Autistic and has severe learning difficulties/disabilities. That's her in the photo above. She was diagnosed at 3 as she didn't understand or interact very much with the world around her and had no speech. Jessica is very sociable but academic skills are very much behind. She will not be pursuing an academic career. She does however, have a lot of skills to offer our community and has expressed an interest of working in a café. She will be great at this but as her learning problems are so complex, she will need a lot more time to learn the skills needed and even more time to consolidate them. Obviously, she is not alone. There are many young people in special needs schools across the country who are able to learn and apply skills but need extra time and patience from others to be able to do so.

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Our coffee van, when set up, will be able to teach many students the skills that they need from an earlier age, to give them the time that they need. Not all of these pupils will have the burning desire that Jessica has to work in a coffee shop, but this enterprise is so much more than that! 

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The young people accessing this venture will learn the following life skills that can be applied to many forms of employment:-

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• Communication skills

• Meeting new people & friends.

• Working as part of a team

• Decision making

• Food and drink preparation

• Hygiene and safety

• Functional numeracy and literacy

• Money handling

• Experience of running and contributing to a real business.

• Baking cakes and biscuits

• Gain industry recognised certification to take on to other employers

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Our social enterprise has been set up as a community interest company whereby all profits from any sales will be ploughed back into training more students. 

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We have 4 Directors:-