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F O A M : N E W S TORONTO PROGRAM TRAINS DEVELOPMENTALLY CHALLENGED ADULTS TO BE PROFESSIONAL BARISTAS SOMEDAY, ALEXANDER SAAB wants to be a barista for a third-wave café. Through the responsibilities and training he is being given at the Coffee Shed—the Toronto-based coffee shop in Surrey Place owned and operated by people with developmental challenges, including Down syn- drome and autism—Alexander is moving closer to that goal. Through a crowd-funding campaign titled "Made by Mavericks," about half of the Coffee Shed's 17 business partners—as the company refers to employees—at the Surrey Place location will receive barista training. The program will hopefully expand to include more partners and imple- ment the training program in all three Coffee Shed locations in the fu- ture, says job coach, manager, and mentor Gerald Fantone. "It might seem very straightforward to make coffee, but as Andrew [Gar- cia, one of the Coffee Shed's partners] has learned through a lot of experience working in other competitive employment, sometimes you need more sup- port than the quote-unquote 'mainstream individual,'" Gerald says. The Coffee Shed began as a coffee kiosk, selling primarily coffee, tea, and snacks. When Gerald came on board, he had the idea to add espres- so-based drinks to the Shed's menu. He was also inspired by the Gali- cian Down Barista Championship, a competition for baristas with Down syndrome held annually in Spain, ultimately leading to the launch of the Mavericks campaign this past winter. In spring of 2015, the Coffee Shed was awarded $5,000 from the "Start Something with Alesse" competition, which offers money and mentorship to one winning nonprofit that launches an altruistic program. Through crowd-funding, personal donations, and the competition winnings, the Coffee Shed was able to raise about $11,000 in just four months, says Gerald. The money will go toward developing the training program and purchasing and installing new equipment, including a full espresso bar. "One of the reasons [the program] is good is because it will not only help us now, it will help us in the future when we want to go on to work at a competitive coffeehouse," says Andrew. Initial training began in the spring for some of the partners using a manual espresso press, though the process was not without its difficulties. Partners Alexander and Andrew said that while training has been a lot of fun, it was definitely challenging at first. "I had trouble learning tamping," says Andrew. Gerald adds, "Every- one learns at a different pace," but that hasn't hindered the participants' enthusiasm: These baristas-in-training can now make basic espresso drinks, including Americanos, Alexander's favorite. Luckily, the group is small enough that training can be customized. "Ideally… after I devise the program I do want to hopefully partner with a larger corporation in coffee because they have more stores, and whoever is interested in hiring baristas who have developmental disabilities, hope- fully partner with them and develop training based on [their menu], and hopefully [that will lead to hiring] individuals with disabilities," Gerald says. So far, the program has already received support from a few local cafés, including de Mello Palheta Coffee Roasters, whose staff has mentored Gerald in the development of the training program. "Once I was intro- duced to Gerald, he was telling me about this program, and without a second of thought, my answer was 'Yes, I want to be part of it, and want to support you as much as I can,'" says de Mello Palheta co-owner Felix Cha. Felix plans on being actively involved in the training, and may also hire one of the baristas once training is completed. Partners have also been learning how to use social media to promote the campaign, utilizing Facebook to send messages, as well as sending about 500 emails per day. Considering the capital they've raised already, it would seem these efforts have paid off. "[The program now has] a life of its own," says Gerald. "It's been a dream." The Coffee Shed is a social enterprise opportunity created by Common Ground Co-operative, an organization that provides educational training, support, and services to adults with developmental disabilities. —Elise Linscott Inspired in part by the Galician Down Barista Championship, a competition for baristas with Down syndrome in Spain, Gerald Fantone raised capital through a crowd-funded campaign for the "Made by Mavericks" program at the Coffee Shed in Toronto to offer barista training to the developmentally challenged adults who own and operate the café. 20 barista magazine