Introducing Barista & Beyond

Laura Shuttleworth • April 29, 2022

Following the incredible outcome of our Crowdfunding campaign, we have been able to begin the process of setting up our café!

Our Crowdfunding campaign managed to raise nearly £11,000 which was an incredible result that is fundamental in allowing our café plans to even go ahead. We want to thank everyone who supported this fundraising effort and helped us to raise this money for such an important project!

In a recent blog post by Reading Borough Council, they announced our partnership with New Directions College, who will be providing off-site education and training for our potential café staff. Of course, we are not the first people to set up a café with a view to helping people get jobs but we think this partnership is one of the things that sets us apart - learners and potential future café employees will have the opportunity to learn how to make the food products, drinks, and even use the till system in a learning environment before having to do it for real. This will make a huge difference to confidence levels and the customer experience in the café. We just can’t wait to get started now! To read more about what Reading Borough Council has to say on the project you can read their article here.

Last week we announced the name of our new café – Barista & Beyond! We ran a poll on social media to find out what the public’s favourite name was and Barista & Beyond was our clear winner gaining nearly 70% of the votes!

Barista & Beyond is located in the heart of Reading by the Broadstreet Mall, just off the Oxford Road. Our café space is yet to be designed and fitted with all our new café equipment, but thanks to the success of our Crowdfunding campaign we are able to begin this process. Here is our Managing Director Becky in the current café space which we are excited to develop and watch turn into Barista & Beyond very soon! We have begun meeting with designers and have started looking at the interior plans and designs for the café space. This week we also had a meeting with a branding agency and have started to design our branding for Barista & Beyond including our logo and other marketing designs. There will be lots more exciting information and updates coming soon so keep an eye on our social media channels!

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Barista and Beyond – the Journey so far

By Hana El-Giathi and Ema Trkulja • June 8, 2023

Our Journey in Changing Lives One Job at a Time continues in our café, Barista & Beyond

Client's journey to achieving her dream job

By Laura Shuttleworth • March 2, 2023

An incredible good news story from one of our clients, who explains how the support from us has changed her life and helped her get her dream job!

A Client’s Employment Journey up to being awarded Employee of the year!

By Laura Shuttleworth • January 16, 2023

When Rajpal first became a client at Ways into Work he had been struggling with looking for work and a good job match. Rajpal has a mild learning disability and mental health issues and had not worked for over ten years except to help now and then at his family’s supermarket. He had not worked for such a long time as he was not well enough to think about his career and life choices. When he joined Ways into Work as a Job Seeker and was assigned an Employment Coach who spent a long time getting to know him, doing a vocational profile and job matching. It was decided that the best first step was for Rajpal was to experience what different jobs and roles are like and what they would entail. Ways into Work then supported him in applying for various roles in retail and did mock interviews where he gained lots of practice. He secured a few interviews but was not offered any of the jobs. Rajpal had begun taking an interest in going to the gym and informed his Employment Coach that he would like a job at the gym. After approaching the employer, his Employment Coach secured an interview for him. He was so happy that at the interview when asked why he would like to work at the gym, he pulled out of his pocket a handwritten lengthy list of reasons why he liked the job and the skills he had to offer. This showed the employer his passion for the job and Rajpal was offered the job, working 3 days (24 hours) a week to begin with. As the leisure centre was 7 miles away, his Employment Coach supported him with applying for Access To Work transport to and from work. They also taught him and his parents how to claim his monthly ATW transport and supported him with the change of circumstances in his benefits. When Rajpal first started to work at the Leisure Centre he solely worked in the gym and his role included ensuring that all the equipment was working and clean, as well as dealing with lots of customer enquiries. This was quite a challenge for Rajpal to begin with, as it was a large premise and no two days were the same. With Job Coaching , Ways into Work was able to support Rajpal by helping to create a routine for him and also discussing with his supervisor a way of building new tasks into his days as the weeks progressed.

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