When entering Great Expectations Together (GET) Café, you walk past bookshelves packed with board games and decorated with signs that read loving and accepting messages like “Come as you are.” When approaching the counter, you are undoubtedly greeted by the smiling face of an employee, noticeable even behind a mask.  

GET Café is a coffee shop located in downtown Narberth, a 10 minute drive from St. Joe’s campus. It is committed to the employment of individuals with disabilities, learning differences and special needs. The cafe is part of GETincluded, Inc., a local nonprofit organization that funds camps, classes and other support resources for people with special needs. 

Founded in 2010, GETincluded, Inc. seeks to educate employers and community members in order to break societal barriers and stigmas against individuals with special needs, according to the organization’s website. 

“I would say the mission is really to get people with disabilities in this community to be part of society and to have them feel like they’re valued, to have a place where they could go and be treated fairly, treated like normal,” said Victoria Goins, the cafe’s manager.

According to a national study conducted by the Special Olympics, unemployment among people with intellectual disabilities is more than twice as high as for the general population. Similarly, people with physical disabilities are twice as likely to be unemployed compared to those without disabilities, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. 

Melissa Leonardi ’20, who was a Kinney Center SCHOLAR as an undergraduate and is now a GET Café employee, said employers are usually hesitant to hire people with autism spectrum disorder or a special need because they are considered “different” in our society. 

“[This] is kind of ridiculous, considering people with disabilities are some of the most kind-hearted, organized and detailed people I’ve ever met,” Leonardi wrote in an email to The Hawk. 

GET Café employs volunteers, part-time and full-time workers of all abilities, Goins said. 

David Block volunteered at the cafe in 2019 and became a part-time worker in 2020. He said his favorite station is the cash register, and that with being legally blind, he never thought he would get the opportunity to work using such a device.  

“I’m very comfortable there,” Block said. “I find working the cash register very therapeutic. Sometimes I get nervous very easily. And when I work at the cafe, I’m not really nervous, I don’t have any anxiety.” 

David Lockwood volunteered at the coffee shop in 2019 and became a part-time worker in 2020. His job responsibilities include, but are not limited to, running the cash register, restocking items and cleaning behind the counter. 

“I make sure everything’s in place and smile,” Lockwood said. “I make sure our customer has what they want exactly the way they want.”

Lockwood said he hasn’t been able to build close relationships with other employees yet since he only gets to work once a week. 

Goins said that employees would typically work at least eight hours a week. But now during the coronavirus pandemic, hours had to be cut to as little as a two hour shift a week for many employees. 

“A lot of them don’t need the money, but it’s their place to come to help or just to have fun with other people, to be part of something,” Goins said. “To have that feeling and then get it cut completely out, it really affects them.”

Block received a master’s in journalism from Temple University in 2017. He said right now, it is hard for him to find work outside the cafe due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“I did secure a job this spring, which was teaching journalism to night school students, which was taken away because of the virus,” Block said. 

Leonardi said that it is already difficult for people with disabilities to find a job, but it is even more difficult when you “add the mask.”

“Most individuals with a disability have sensory issues and have a difficult time wearing a mask [and] wearing a mask for an extended period of time can pose a problem for these individuals,” Leonardi said. 

Leonardi said GET Café shows customers that just because someone has a disability, doesn’t mean they aren’t capable.

Goins said that the cafe has a lot of returning customers because they feel that same kind of acceptance that the coffee shop represents for their employees. 

“I love coming to work,” Goins said. “It’s really a happy place. People come here all the time, just to feel that acceptance. There’s no hostility. We’ve gotten so much great feedback. It’s a really great place to be.”