CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Changing the way people see people with disabilities, Bitty & Beau's Coffee coming to Jacksonville

Florida Times-Union - 1/3/2022

Jacksonville soon will be the home of a new coffee shop that is more than just about serving a satisfying cup of coffee and a freshly baked muffin.

Bitty and Beau's Coffee, founded in 2016 in Wilmington, N.C., is a coffeehouse dedicated to employing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Amy and Ben Wright established the cafe in honor of their children. Bitty and her older brother, Beau, were born with Down syndrome. Their sister, Lillie, has autism. Their big sister, Emma Grace, helps their parents with the business — most recently working to ensure Braille menus are available in all of their coffee shops.

"We are trying to change the way that people see people with disabilities," Amy Wright told The Florida Times-Union.

"Myself having two children with Down syndrome and one child with autism I have seen how they have been overlooked or marginalized," she said. "And it's really a result we believe of a social issue where people just have not recognized the inherent value of their lives."

More restaurant news: Sign up for our weekly Dining Notes newsletter

'Made me feel more independent': Jobs enhance lives of special-needs clients at Jacksonville nonprofit

It's not any one person's fault, she said. Rather, it's a matter of "sometimes when you are not exposed to something, you don't care about it."

"You have to see something first to care about it," Wright said. "A coffee shop puts people with disabilities in the spotlight. They're doing everything from taking orders to making drinks to sharing conversation with the guests. So, guests in our shop begin to see people with disabilities differently."

Wright also said they hope guests will go back to their place of business and advocate for people with disabilities to be hired.

Jacksonville will be the 16th Bitty & Beau's franchise. More details on the coffeehouse's location are expected in the coming weeks.

"We are shoring up some of the contract details," said Wright, noting they are expanding their footprint down the East Coast from Wilmington.

She declined to identify the Jacksonville franchise owners.

Once the site is locked in, Wright estimated it will take about six months to open the Jacksonville store. That includes construction, hiring and training, she said.

Pedal power: Students with disabilities get the hang of 2 wheels at Jacksonville bicycling camp

VyStar: Shopability celebrates Jacksonville-area businesses that hire people 'with all abilities'

First Coast residents have come into the coffee shop's Savannah location and urged them to open in Jacksonville, she said.

Jacksonville is among 18 Bitty & Beau's franchises sold in a little more than a year when the company started franchising.

"It's just part of our growth strategy to have a presence all over the country, and Jacksonville was very welcoming and attractive to us. It's a place where we wanted to grow," Wright said.

Bitty and Beau's has 24 shops across 11 states, including six corporate stores and five franchised locations. Another 13 are in development — either under construction or in the planning stages.

They are in a dozen states as far west as Texas and north as Massachusetts, said Wright.

Bitty's and Beau's is founded on love. It's also about change.

It's about "changing the way people accept, respect, value, include, see, and love other people" not just serving a good cup of coffee," according to Bitty & Beau's philosophy.

And it's about recognizing that people with disabilities are people.

"The reason we started the coffee shop was to help address the unemployment epidemic that exists in our country for people with disabilities," Wright said. "Statistically, there are 80 percent of people with disabilities unemployed across America."

"We have our work cut out for us in creating some change in every state across the country. That's our plan," she said.

Each store has about 30 employees including support staff who assist them. Wright said they will have a hiring fair to attract employees for the Jacksonville store.

"Unlike the employment crisis that exists right now in the hospitality industry and a lot of industries where it's hard to find employees, in our business we have a surplus of employees," she said of people with disabilities.

"At any given job fair, we'll have 100 people show up who want a job and we'll hire anywhere between 20 and 40 of them," Wright said.

People with disabilities, she said, historically have not had the same opportunities that typically [other] people do.

"They are eager to join the workforce and they are very good employees. They are very loyal and hardworking. The attrition rate is next to nothing," said Wright, noting most of their employees have been with Bitty and Beau's since each shop was founded. "It's a wonderful workforce."

At least five million people in Florida live with a disability, said Bob Ward, president and CEO of The Council of 100 — a private nonprofit, nonpartisan organization composed of Florida business leaders who advise state government.

The council earlier this year surveyed more than 800 Florida businesses about their hiring practices of people with disabilities, according to nonprofit The Able Trust, which recently released the preliminary results.

Among those results:

** 51 percent of survey respondents said their business had hired a person with a disability in recent years.

** 93 percent report their employees with disabilities have been as effective as, or more effective than, expected.

** 1 in 4, or 24 percent, of respondents say their business has a proactive hiring policy for people with disabilities, such as seeking them as part of their hiring process.

Those results indicate that more Florida businesses "are paying attention to diversity and inclusion, and including persons with disabilities in their hiring processes," The Able Trust, also known as the Florida Endowment Foundation for Vocational Rehabilitation, said in an Oct. 1 news release.

However, the "gap between workforce participation of the general population and persons with disabilities is more than 40 percent and this workforce gap has remained consistent for more than 40 years," according to the organization.

'I feel like I'm a rock star': Jacksonville special-needs band gives members a creative outlet

'Thinking out of the box': The Arc Jacksonville plans new housing model with mental-health focus

"Diversity and inclusion are becoming more important to businesses as they see the benefits of a more diverse organization, and as younger workers emphasize an inclusive culture as a consideration when looking for work," Allison Chase, president and CEO of The Able Trust, said in the news release

Given the current labor shortage, Chase said it's important for companies "to understand how to tap into this underutilized talent pool."

"This is the only way we're going to close the unemployment gap," she said.

The survey results also showed that "more successful, larger companies are hiring persons with disabilities, a key indicator that they see these employees as important to their success," Ward said in the news release.

"These findings match other studies that show hiring people with disabilities can give companies a competitive advantage," he said.

Plans call for the Jacksonville coffee shop to be about 2,000 to 2,500 square feet. There will be some outdoor seating.

The decor and atmosphere will be welcoming. Their stores have won architectural design awards. But genuine hospitality is key, Wright said.

Wright said most of all they want Bitty & Beau's to be a place that people want to go to and connect with people and feel like it's a community.

"Especially during this pandemic, we've found that if people are going to leave their house and go somewhere, they want it to be an experience. They want to make it worth it otherwise you can have stuff delivered to your door," she said.

The Jacksonville menu will be similar to the offerings at their other coffee shops, including everything from lattes to cappuccinos and Americanos plus smoothies and frappes. Bitty & Beau's also offers an assortment of baked goods, such as bagels, brownies muffins and other pastries.

©2022 www.jacksonville.com. Visit jacksonville.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Nationwide News