This Airport Coffee Shop Is Uplifting Neurodiverse Workers

People with autism see the world by means of a barely totally different lens—lights can seem too vibrant, noises would possibly sound too loud. As a end result, working in a busy surroundings like a restaurant will be kryptonite for these on the spectrum. 

But this didn’t deter the Pacific Autism Family Network (PAFN) from opening the nation’s first neurodiverse café inside Canada’s second largest airport within the fall of 2023. Located within the busy home arrivals space of the Vancouver International Airport, Paper Planes Café hires and trains workers with neurological variations within the artwork of customer support, order taking and latte making.

The business’s lofty objective is posted on the wall for travellers to see: “We’re a coffee shop on a mission to empower autistic and neurodiverse individuals, providing meaningful employment opportunities.” Employees are paid a dwelling wage of $24 per hour, and after a six-month stint on the café they earn their “hospitality wings” and the PAFN workforce helps them discover employment elsewhere. 

The social enterprise is the brainchild of Wendy and Sergio Cocchia, a Vancouver couple that began the PAFN in 2016 to help households dwelling with the lifelong developmental dysfunction that impacts one in 50 Canadian kids and adolescents. The Cocchias, whose grownup son has autism, dreamed of in the future serving to members of the autism neighborhood discover work. 

Related: Is Your Workplace Supporting Neurodiverse Employees?

“Employment really is the conduit to leading a meaningful life,” says Sergio, noting that almost all households with a member on the spectrum need two issues for his or her little one: a buddy and a job. The café gives each.

Trainees begin out working shorter shifts of two to 4 hours to assist them construct confidence and get used to the sounds and area. With help from neurotypical managers and mentors, they discover ways to take and fill buyer orders whereas progressing by means of a expertise guidelines that features every little thing from sporting an apron correctly to finishing a transaction.

But the coaching program is about extra than simply mastering sensible duties like making and serving espresso and sandwiches. “It’s also about the soft skills and the social skills that are incredibly important to any kind of employment,” says Wendy.

Trainees get to observe smiling, having pleasant conversations with prospects and drawback fixing, essential belongings when working in hospitality. Support workers are there to information them when it will get busy—the café serves about 100 prospects a day—and to assist them handle points like sensory overload. 

The enterprise is funded by means of a partnership with the Vancouver Airport Authority, which made a five-year dedication to PAFN for $500,000. In return, PAFN is coaching 25 per cent of airport authority workers in autism consciousness and sensitivity, in order that frontline staff together with CATSA safety screeners, terminal officers and YVR Fire and Rescue members, amongst others, may have the talents to acknowledge and reply to neurodiverse travellers. 

Additionally, the 95-square-metre area is being offered to the café rent-free, in order that the PAFN can reinvest the business’s earnings into supporting extra employment alternatives for the autism neighborhood.

Related: How to Spot—and Stop—Unconscious Bias in Hiring

“It’s really important that our airport be fully inclusive and accessible,” says Vancouver Airport Authority CEO Tamara Vrooman. “This initiative allows us to make sure that our staff and our passengers are interacting with and seeing people with autism in a different way. We’re getting a cup of coffee when we go there—they’re getting a career.”

Tellingly, Paper Planes Café doesn’t depend success in meals and drinks offered, however in trainees graduated. “The only way we can measure success is the number of people we place and who get meaningful employment after the fact,” says Sergio.

So far, 5 workers have fledged from the café and at the moment are stretching their wings in jobs exterior of the YVR nest, with extra following this spring. Paper Planes made their employment desires attainable, and within the course of the café improved the airport expertise for all passengers. That’s undoubtedly good for business.