Inside the pioneering coffee shop that only employs people with learning and developmental disabilities

This heartwarming story has an important message for other business owners
Liz Connor12 July 2017

Bitty & Beau’s in North Carolina isn’t your average coffee shop.

While you can still get your flat white and your croissant, it has one very unique difference from other cafes in the state - it specialises in employing people with learning and developmental disabilities, ranging from Down syndrome to autism and cerebral palsy.

The community coffee shop has a 40-strong team of workers who help to bring a completely unique customer service to the shop - making sure every customer leaves with a smile on their faces.

For many of the employees, this is their first job.

At Bitty & Beau’s they’re tasked with taking orders, brewing up coffee and serving drinks with hugs and high fives.

The coffee shop is the brainchild of Amy Wright, named after her two youngest children who were born with Down syndrome.

When she and her husband learned that nearly 70 per cent of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities do not have jobs, they decided to do something.

The Wrights wanted to create a business where their children and other people in the community could have them to have the same opportunities as everyone else when entering into the working world.

All the profits from the coffee shop go to the family's nonprofit, Able to Work USA.

The family venture, they say, is an important way for them to change the way other people see, value and accept those with disabilities.

The original coffee shop opened in January 2016 in a 500 square foot space in Wilmington, NC. where they regularly had queues out of the door.

Now they’ve moved to a bigger space, allowing them more opportunity to offer jobs in the community.

Clearly the cafe’s brilliant customer service has gone down a storm - Bitty & Beau's has received glowing five star reviews on Facebook, where customers have praised the team’s friendly and welcoming service.

"One of the most wonderful places I have ever been," says one reviewer, adding: "Coffee was great but the staff and smiles was better than any cup of coffee. I could have stayed all day."

And for some parents, many of which live hours away, the coffee shop has proved a place of pilgrimage.

“I first learned about this coffee shop from social media last year and have wanted to visit ever since. We live an hour and a half away and took our first trip yesterday, ” says another reviewer.

"I was moved to tears by this amazing business, as I have a step daughter who's intellectually disabled.

“This brings so much hope to me for the future of people with disabilities everywhere."

Bitty & Beau’s, the Wrights say, has a very important message for other business owners - that it’s time to change the way we see people with disabilities.

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