Cafe worker Sharon Mianscum,left, helps her costumer Kelly Wyles at the John Howard Society new cafe on St. Paul Street in Kelowna, B.C. on December 15, 2010. The cafe is a social enterprise venture of The John Howard Society's One Program. One Cup At A Time will provide training to local individuals with barriers to employment who are motivated to gain skills as baristas and food service workers.Jeff Bassett for The Globe and Mail
A new café in downtown Kelowna is serving up more than just coffee-- it's dishing out healthy portions of hope to its baristas, many of whom are dealing with mental-health and addiction issues as they try to get off the streets and into the world of work.
One Cup at a Time is a "social enterprise" project, spearheaded by the John Howard Society of the Central and South Okanagan. Its aim is to be a viable and profitable business while providing job training to people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness.
"We all agreed that we need to be a contemporary, competitive business, just like anybody else," program director Traci Cook said. "So, we need to get the doors open, provide a great product, provide great service and an atmosphere that would bring customers in."
Ensuring the success of the program, she added, requires "ensuring the success of the business."
One Cup at a Time is on the ground floor of Cardington Apartments, a two-year-old supportive housing complex, also operated by the John Howard Society. It's located in a mixed residential and commercial neighbourhood, and, by design, it blends in with the other street-level businesses in the area.
The café project provides participants with six months of training to prepare them for the food services industry. Candidates are referred to the program by local social services agencies. Most have few job skills and are getting help for addiction and mental-health issues.
To be accepted, they have to be stable and be following any prescribed treatments, such as taking medication or attending therapy. "Because, again, we are a business," Ms. Cook said.
One of the café's baristas, Sharon Mianscum, 25, dropped out of school in Grade 8. A survivor of both physical and sexual abuse, Ms. Mianscum said she was in a dark pit of drug and alcohol use when she decided to change her life.
"I was very, very deep into that world and I had to get out, just to save myself. I was losing my soul," she said.
Ms. Mianscum was living in a tent last spring when she secured a bed at a shelter for women and children. She spent a month-and-a-half living there, getting cleaned up and into group therapy. "They pushed me and got me moving," she said.
She currently lives in a supportive housing apartment operated by the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society, an aboriginal non-profit organization that also referred her to One Cup at a Time.
"I had told them I had no employment skills at all," Ms. Mianscum said. "They sent me here, and since then it's just been a fun ride."
Ms. Mianscum said she enjoys serving customers and the program has her feeling more optimistic about the future. "I really like working in a café," she said, "and as I grow more and more confident every day, I think, wow, I can really do this, maybe I can own my own café one day."
The program is in its second month and, for now, participants like Ms. Mianscum are volunteering their time. But Ms. Cook said she hopes to secure provincial funding early in the new year, at which point participants will be paid.
Once participants have completed the program, Ms. Cook will try to place them with another Kelowna-area café or restaurant while continuing to provide support. "We really are building assets for other companies," she said.
So far, the café seems to be a hit with its customers. Susan Sheen works in an office next door to One Cup at a Time and goes in for a latte pretty much every day.
"I think the premise is wonderful," she said. "And yeah, we've got a ton of coffee shops in Kelowna, I mean there's no getting around it, but this is unique and wonderful and the quality of the coffee is just excellent."
Special to The Globe and Mail