Local impact story of SE

Impact of Social Enterprise, Locally - My Jamii Cafe

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My Jamii Cafe - Honor Oak Park !

Some basic information about ‘My Jamii Cafe’ which is quickly becoming a local hot spot in Honor Oak, South-East London. As a regular customer, the staff, prices and atmosphere are all amazing, and is a great example of a social enterprises impact not only on the staff members that it sets out to help, but also the community around it.

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About ‘My Jamii Cafe’ the project !

A new, not-for-profit enterprise scheme that was started in May 2014. It was started as a direct result of meeting many young people with low educational attainment, minimal literacy and little access to work experience or opportunities to improve their circumstances, all in the Borough of Lewisham.

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We work with young people between the ages of 17 - 23 who have been referred from schools, youth work projects and social workers. This project aims not only to provide training and work placements, but also to help our trainees gain access to wider opportunities after they have completed their placements with us. This will be done through connections with other voluntary organisations and businesses in the catering and other industries.

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A brief over view of the training our young people will receive: - NVQ Level 2 in Catering - Barista Training - Customer Service - Maths and English Lessons - Health and Hygiene Training

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Sam and Zoe are currently voluntary youth workers in the London Borough of Lewisham, although they both have other very different day jobs. Working with youth for many years, they see that once youth leave their youth work places and education, that for some their options are limited. This can be for many reasons with poor numeracy and literacy skills being high factors. They are passionate about tackling this in which ever small way they can.

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The motivation behind the Jamii Project is to see young people in South East London have the opportunity to train, work and reach their potential through a cafĂŠ that serves amazing coffee and is a hub of the community. The revenue from sales in the cafĂŠ will cover costs as this is a not for profit business, any profits will be put into training more young people with excess funds being given through grant applications to local groups that benefit youths.

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The Cafe !

We put people before profit. Unlike other coffee shops that sell coffee to generate profit, we sell to give dignity and skills to marginalized young people. But we don’t just want to be known for our amazing ethos: we aim to sell the best artisan coffee this side of the river.

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Here at Jamii cafe we are all about community and that doesn't stop with our food. We have worked hard to ensure that all our produce is locally sourced so that you can eat the scrummiest cakes and lunches, and so that we can support our local business.

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SE23 and SE4 is where its at . More and more people are recognizing it as an awesome part of London because people in Lewisham understand community and support local business. We could not have come as far as we have without so many people donating and helping us in many ways.

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Examples of Impact on local Community ! !

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Staff: Jaycee Mulholland has come straight from a local school, where he found out about the initiative.

“I do a bit of everything at the cafe,” he said. “I work with two other young people, one of which I knew before. I do think it will help me in terms of finding jobs in the future.”

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Zoe Slater - Cofounder of My Jamii Cafe:“One of the things we came across was the lack of jobs that would offer this kind of support. A lot of jobs are very business driven and wouldn’t give a new employee the extra attention that we want to give ours. We’re not going to fire them on their first day if they turn up late, we like to sit down and talk to them.”

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“We want to support them and see what they’re interested in, whether that’s the coffee side, the food or they may not be interested in any of this. They may be interested in fashion, for example, so we want to make the connections with local people who offer those opportunities.”

“Their literacy and numeracy is low, as is their self-confidence. For them to go out and get a job with someone they don’t know would be amazing,” The cakes on sale are certainly inviting, but the mission behind the project is even sweeter.

“The change we’ve seen in them in just the first week has been amazing,” said Slater. “For the first couple of days we were all in a bit of a shock because of the opening and didn’t know which way to go. There were tears and upset, but now we see everyone walking out smiling.”

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http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2014/10/meet-the-trader-lewishams-my-jamii/