WOODBRIDGE — Maia Keillor didn’t know how to make coffee before, but she learned to do it in under a week. Now, she said, her favorite part of her new job is making coffee, as well as mango smoothies.
Likewise, Ilana Barzel, who mainly works as a barista and sometimes handles cashier duties, said she likes meeting a lot of people at The Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven because it’s an opportunity for her to utilize her social skills.
The two are working at Café J, a new coffee shop and a grab-and-go retail spot recently opened at the JCC with a “different purpose”: it’s staffed entirely by adults with autism.
The model for the café stemmed from a partnership between the JCC and Chapel Haven Schleifer Center to create a training program for the center’s residents with developmental and/or social challenges.
“The JCC had a café in this space for a lot of years and we always had a for-profit company come in,” said Scott Cohen, JCC’s executive director. “It needed to not just have the purpose of trying to make a profit. … Let's have a cafe that has the purpose of helping people to find employment.”
Because all Chapel Haven residents are active JCC members and there already is an existing 10-month-long internship program in which Chapel Haven matches its residents with paid opportunities at JCC’s various departments, the idea of Café J emerged.
Seven interns split to two shifts with three spots for each shift and four roles they can rotate around — barista, cashier, floater and lobby person.
Sarah Elsdon, director of CareerAbilitiy at Chapel Haven, said it’s a “stepping stone” for students so they can move and look for outside employment that best fits them. A new cohort of staffers is expected to begin in fall, she said.
Jeremiah Redmond, the café’s manager who has been working in hospitality for about 20 years, said one big skill interns will learn is customer service, how to make various beverages, how to take inventories and how to merchandise products.
“They've been tremendously engaged,” Redmond said of the interns. “They're really excited to learn anything that can be taught. With everybody, it's a matter of repetition. The more times you practice doing anything, the more you're comfortable with doing it and the more proficient you’ll be.”
Rachel Scolnic Dobin, a social worker at Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven, said another thing that’s unique about the coffee shop is that all the workers “literally started on the same day the café opened.” A lot is left to be figured out, she said.
“There’s a lot of ownership in that, too,” Scolnic Dobin said. “They’re seeing us struggle. But my way of teaching is very open. I don’t know how to make coffee, either; let’s learn together.”
Scolnic Dobin recalled that there was a new college student who started working there earlier and she was really nervous on her first day, but Chapel Haven students taught her how to make a coffee and a cappuccino.
“That was pretty awesome because, like they say, if they’re good enough to explain something, that means you really have the knowledge so that they were able to step-by-step show her how to do the cappuccino to make her confident,” Scolnic Dobin said.
According to Cohen, only 44 percent of working-age adults with developmental challenges or autism are receiving job skill development and only 18 percent of those who look for jobs are employed.
Elsdon said they need opportunities, just like how those without a disability go to college and do an internship to figure out a career they want to pursue.
She gave the existing 10-month internship program as an example. The program matches interns with different departments so students can “forge a career path.”
“Then I think just part of being part of the community, Chapel Haven has a pretty large Jewish population,” Elsdon said. “Many students have shown interest in being much more in-depth, involved in the JCC, and they just feel at home here.”
Scolnic Dobin said they won’t know what they do or don’t like until they try to do something. She said there was a person who did the Café J internship for only a few days because she discovered that she didn’t like the smell of a café.
“Unless she had that opportunity, she wouldn’t have known,” Scolnic Dobin said. “I think that as much as it might be perfect for some people, learning what’s not perfect is a huge gift that you can do in a very safe, nurturing environment.”
The coffee shop still is in its early stage, just recently holding its grand opening. Redmond said it’s been exciting to engage with the members of JCC. The place sells coffee, tea, smoothies, other types of drinks, miscellaneous pastries, limited snack items and bottled drinks.
Redmond said the menu list is expected to expand as the store grows.
“We know it's not a finished product,” Cohen said. “It’s going to continue to evolve, whether it's the student experience or the hours or the menu. Just changing as we go is going to be part of the motto.”
Café J is located inside the JCC at 360 Amity Road in Woodbridge. The coffee shop opens to the public year-round from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.
chatwan.mongkol@hearstmediact.com
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