Remove the barriers that learning disabled adults face by building the PROPS Café, providing training, skills, confidence and employment.
by PROPS in Bristol, England, United Kingdom
The cafe is just the beginning. We have plans to transform the building into a fully functional hub, providing services like printing and clothes tailoring to the public, providing office and recreational spaces for trainees, growing an outside catering area, adding in platform lifts and more opportunities for adults with learning disabilities.
95% of adults with a learning disability in the UK aren't in paid employment due to the huge barriers they face in our society, despite the majority wanting to?
PROPS are a small, local charity who currently support 54 adults with learning disabilities across Bristol and South Gloucestershire. We provide a daily, structured programme of support, training adults in many of the essential life and workplace skills that they have little (or no) access to otherwise. This includes cooking, brewing, gardening, clothes printing and tailoring, sports leadership programmes and much more!
Our trainees are some of the most under-represented people in Bristol, and through our work, we empower them with the skills, confidence, independence, and opportunities to secure meaningful, paid employment and thrive with the same quality of life that we all deserve.
PROPS has been fortunate to secure a long-term lease on an empty storefront in the bustling Fishponds Road High Street area of Bristol. Our goal, is to renovate it and transform it into a fully inclusive, accessible Cafe and Enterprise Centre, where all drinks, food, products and services will be made and sold by, PROPS trainees.
This will be a first of it's kind project for Bristol, unlocking direct routes to employment that wouldn't be available without your support.
With your help, Project 769 will provide adults with learning disabilities with meaningful paid work, highly transferable skills training, customer-facing experience and the confidence and independence that this brings as adults which they have little to no opportunities to gain elsewhere.
- Barista training: In partnership with local coffee companies, trainees will be taught how to roast coffee and make it using professional equipment, providing a highly transferable skill to the 100s of Barista jobs across the city.
- Cooking training: From our expert PROPS' project leads, trainees will learn how to cook lunch time meals, decide which meals to offer, get creative with new choices and have the satisfaction of seeing happy customers pay for the food they have lovingly made!
- Customer Service Training: Trainees, mostly for the first time, will engage with customers on a day to day basis, taking orders and serving food and drinks to the public. This provides a major route to employment to thousands of potential employers as well as the confidence, independence and sense of purpose it brings.
- Printing Services. PROPS has been running a printing enterprise ' Printability' for a couple of years which has led to regular paid employment for some trainees for the first time ever, including custom clothes printing, signs and posters. This service will be offered to the public via Project 769, providing training, employment, satisfaction and a significant boost to the CVs of many more adults.
- Confidence and Independence. The effects the pandemic had on our lives is no stranger to any of us. Staying at home with no access to the office or self-development opportunities can have a major impact on our confidence, independence and sense of purpose in life. Unfortunately, up to half of all adults with a learning disability only leave their home for less than 1 hour a day. This project will change that for dozens of adults and make a personal difference lasting a lifetime.
You will help change how people see learning disabilities locally, by providing a supportive environment and new way to engage and understand it.
You will help our small charity generate a sustainable source of income, enabling us to support many more adults across Bristol and South Gloucestershire in the years to come that currently don't have access to PROPS.
You will be helping to train and support up to 54 PROPS trainees with learning disabilities literally from the ground up. Our hope, is that not only will we provide direct employment through the Café, but that PROPS trainees will go on to secure other meaningful paid work in our local community with the skills and training they gain here on an ongoing basis.
As a small, local charity, we simply can't take on a project of this scale by ourselves. That also means that every £ you donate makes a HUGE difference to building Project 769 brick by brick, and for the futures of adults with learning disabilities who deserve the same opportunities at life as us all.
We have a full list of work that needs to be undertaken such as tearing down walls, painting, plastering, plumbing, installing wheelchair accessible entrances and toilets, kitchen appliances and more.
Every £ you donate will go towards this, helping us to build a lifechanging site, brick - by - brick, that will see thousands of customers enter it in the years to come!
If you have the expertise as a sole trader or business to help with the physical renovation work, please contact [email protected] - you will literally be building better opportunities in Bristol and South Gloucestershire from the ground up.
After we hit our total target, we will begin the construction work thanks to you! We will be keeping you updated on progress, including quotes and videos from PROPS trainees who will show you first hand, the difference it will make.
The Final Step? Come visit us when we open!
This project offers rewards in return for your donation.