Student Opens Cafe to Tackle Homelessness

Second Shot Coffee is an idea pioneered by Julius Ibrahim, a final year student at University College London. By setting up this social enterprise café, Second Shot is aiming to tackle homelessness in London one espresso at a time.

Initially, Second Shot Coffee will offer four homeless people training, full time employment and London living wage.

The homelessness charity Crisis will advertise the employment opportunities in Second Shot to their service users, helping to find suitable applicants for the jobs. Those who are successful will undertake work experience within the Intercontinental Hotel Group before taking on their position at Second Shot Coffee. Through providing this work experience and training, paid for by any profits from the cafe, the workers will be able to integrate back into society. By working alongside Enactus UK, a database of partnerships has been established for the homeless employees with the aim to reintroduce them to the sector they were interested in prior to them becoming homeless.

Second Shot will serve high quality speciality coffee, alongside artisan baked goods from local suppliers and grilled cheese sandwiches. Everything in the café will be for sale, including the artwork and upcycled furniture. The café will also be offering a pay it forward system where customers can prepay for food or drinks, and these can be used by customers who need them. Second shot will also be distributing any leftover produce to local homeless communities after closing hours.

Student Opens Cafe to Tackle Homelessness

The pay it forward system at Second Shot Café

Second shot are currently seeking more funding in order to be ready for their December launch. Click here to find out more about the pledging opportunities. The campaign received support from Alastair Stewart, an English Journalist and newscaster, in it’s first day.

To find out more please visit the Second Shot website and follow them on Twitter.

 

 

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About Author

Bethany Summers is a final year Neuroscience student at University College London. She has worked and continues to work with a number of charities and is most passionate about providing a voice to those without one through listening to and sharing their stories.

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