‘They deserve a chance’: New Columbia coffee shop breaks stigma, employs disabled workers
A human rights movement, disguised as a coffee shop
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - One family is trying to break the stigma surrounding people with special needs and their ability to work.
It all started in 2016 in Wilmington, North Carolina, when Ben and Amy Wright were looking for a work opportunity for their children with special needs.
The coffee shop Bitty & Beau’s is named after the Wright’s two children, who are disabled. It started as one location in North Carolina has expanded to 20 locations, with its most recent opening in Columbia.
The grand opening will be held May 4 at the corner of Gervais and Park streets.
Amy Wright said the coffee shop was meant for a greater purpose than just making coffee.
“It’s important to give them the opportunities, so that they know they are valued that they are capable,” she said. “I don’t know how you do life any other way, you know, this is a population of people that have been overlooked and marginalized for a long time.”
“Our coffee shops are kind of busting those stigmas, and saying, you know, what these people can work, and can do a great job, and they deserve a chance,” Amy Wright said.
Eighty percent of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are unemployed nationwide, Wright said, and Bitty & Beau’s is trying to change that.
They currently have 38 disabled employees working at their location in Columbia. They are trained with supervisors on how to greet guests, take orders and make drinks.
One employee, Sarah Rabon, said she may not have had this opportunity anywhere else.
“There are not really many places around Columbia that are integrating disabled people into the work place,” she said. “There’s a lot of discrimination. and things that people don’t really think about when going through that process.”
“When other places are hiring, they won’t say, ‘Oh, we aren’t hiring you because you are disabled,’ but you can finally pick that up when you realize,” she said.
At Bitty and Beau’s, Wright said those differences are celebrated, and contribute to their mission of disguising a coffee shop as a human rights movement.
WIS News 10 asked employee Leah Hampton what her favorite part about working is.
She said, “You don’t have to be someone you’re not.”
Wright said they made the decision to open up Bitty and Beau’s because, “We wanted others to see what we saw in our kids.”
“We feel like our coffee shop is that place, where you can come in here, and there’s no equipment on the front bar, sitting at the counter,” she said. “It’s visiting with these employees, spending time together, seeing what they are capable of doing, so that you start to reshape the way you think about people with disabilities. "
Rabon said this experience has been different than any other job she has had.
“It’s just really important, because it gives people like me, and everyone else here, a chance to work and to have purpose, and to do fun and exciting things they wouldn’t normally be able to do,” Rabon said.
There’s a uniqueness in the way that Bitty & Beau’s takes coffee orders.
Once anyone places that order they’re given a playing card. This is used in replacement of writing the name on the coffee cup.
The employees track that order with a matching playing card, and once the order is ready, they’ll shout out the face and number of that card.
“The cards was my husband’s genius idea many moons ago, we just decided it would be a fun way to track orders,” Wright said.
When you walk into the shop, you might also encounter the employees in the middle of a dance party. Wright said this has become a part of their culture, to pause their work, and keep it fun.
At the shops you’ll see merchandise with different positive slogans.
“The radically inclusive, the not broken, changing the way people see other people ― these are messages we want people to take home with them,” Wright said. “Whether its on a bag, or a shirt, or a bag, so that they go out in their communities and represent this movement as well.”
A reminder, when you visit Bitty & Beaus, its not just a cup of coffee ― its a mission.
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