BEACH HAVEN – “Compassion Café” a new nonprofit in Beach Haven will be making waves this spring and summer, offering jobs for adults with special needs and disabilities.
The idea for Compassion Café began when the Founders Erin Sharkey and her aunt Sue Sharkey realized that there weren’t many opportunities or jobs for adults with special needs.
“I have worked with autistic kids for about 12 years now. Over the years I developed a vocational skills training program because what we see all the time is that there’s tons of opportunities while kids are in school, but then once they graduate and they turn 21 there’s nothing. So, it’s always been a long-term goal of mine to create a work space where adults with disabilities could have a place to work and actually make a little bit of money,” Erin said. “My aunt Sue Sharkey is a retired physical education teacher from Southern Regional. She said ‘hey what are your thoughts about doing something like this,’ and I said ‘I think it’s time.’”
Compassion Café’s mission is to employ local adults with special needs by providing a work environment catered to training and support, so each individual is able to develop appropriate vocational skills in a natural work setting. The nonprofit completely relies on the community’s donations. The money made would go towards paying the café’s employees. The idea is to use local restaurants as a space to host the café.
“We created a model where local restaurants who aren’t open for breakfast donate their space to us so that we can function out of a pre-existing restaurant. Barry and Nicole Baxter from Barry’s Do Me A Flavor in Beach Haven were gracious enough to be the inaugural host,” Erin said. “I worked for them years ago. All my cousins have worked for them or still do. They’re just phenomenal people so for them to partner alongside us to be able to give back to the community in this way is really special.”
A soft opening for Compassion Café will be held on May 10 at Barry’s Do Me A Flavor located at 309 Centre St. in Beach Haven. Erin stated how they’re still in the process of scheduling their grand opening, but at the moment they have it potentially scheduled for May 17.
The café will be open Monday through Thursday from 7 to 11 a.m. There will be self-service coffee, baked goods, bagels and quiche. They will also have a dog bakery with dog treats.
“Our employees will be making the dog treats. Terrance Methodist Church in Beach Haven donated their space of their commercial kitchen for us to use one or two afternoons a week to do the prep work and to bake the dog treats. So, in addition to being open Monday through Thursday, we’ll also have some employees work one or two days a week to prep everything,” Erin said.
“I’d say that Compassion Café is definitely the first of its kind on Long Beach Island. It’s pretty much, besides anything that’s school based, the only thing available for special needs adults. Especially something that’s running independently of another organization. We’re excited to get this going off the ground and we have some long-term goals like to have a year-long establishment on the mainland. But we love the idea of every year being able to go to a new location host on LBI, maybe do a north-end one in the future. We are definitely excited for the opportunities and we’ve had such a great response already from the community, from potential employees and from volunteers. It just feels like the sky’s the limit for us,” Erin said.
Erin stated how the door is always open for new employees and volunteers. To learn more about Compassion Café, you can visit their website at compassioncafelbi.org. If you’d like to become an employee of volunteer, you can email Erin at compassioncafelbi@gmail.com.
