How 3 parents built a Dieppe cafe that serves more than just coffee

For someone who works in a cafe, Sophie Arsenault doesn't particularly enjoy indulging in what she serves.

"I hate coffee," she said with a laugh. "But the truth is, coffee is the [most] amazing thing ever for me."

Arsenault loves her job, but finding meaningful work hasn't been easy for the 22-year-old, said her dad Eric Arsenault.

"It's extremely limited," he said. When Eric Arsenault found out about Café Inclusio — a cafe in Dieppe, N.B., that employs young adults with disabilities — he couldn't pass up the opportunity. 

"It's fantastic. It really is, because when you provide people with that opportunity to be able to be amongst everybody and.be respected, be included,  it's a very empowering feeling for the person," he said.

"And as a parent, it just warms your heart to be able to see them play a role in in society."

A dream of inclusion

Café Inclusio is the product of parent power: three parents from Moncton and neighbouring Dieppe who combined forces to tackle their shared challenge of helping their children with disabilities find their way into the working world.

Pierre Arsenault recalls the chilly February night in 2017 when he and his wife Suzanne Boudreau met up with their old friend, Nathalie Perron, at a Starbucks. Each of the families had a teenaged son with disabilities, and Perron had an idea.

"That's where it all started. We even came up with the name Café Inclusio that night. Because our sons, at that point, were close to finishing school. And we knew that after school, there was nothing," said Arsenault.

The three gradually turned it into a reality, with their sons Joël Arsenault and Samuel DeGarie operating a pop-up shop making and selling coffee, and earning some money.

With few outside resources and lots of pandemic challenges, the parents forged ahead with their business plan and opened their bricks-and-mortar location in the summer of 2022.

They quickly added six other employees, and have a waiting list of others looking for work.

"It was always the dream to include other people — that was that was the dream. I mean, the mission was to create a world where inclusion is possible for everyone," said Suzanne Boudreau.

Preparing for their full potential

Boudreau, Perron and Arsenault are helping create that world, because the current outlook for after school isn't rosy, despite efforts to prepare eventual high school graduates.

Mathieu Martin High School in Dieppe has an array of supports for the kids in its inclusive program, including a mock apartment where students learn life skills, like ironing or doing dishes. There's also a co-op program to gain work experience.

"My goal is for each student to be able to develop their full potential, really, and become active members of society," said Nancy Parker, one of nine resource teachers at Mathieu Martin.

The school's program is "a victim of our own success," she said, with teachers from Quebec, Ontario and even Europe coming to check out the program.

Inclusive program students can keep attending Mathieu Martin until they're 21, but despite co-op placements and the other efforts, Parker said finding jobs afterward isn't easy.

"People … just aren't very patient, aren't very tolerant to differences. So yeah, it doesn't translate to many jobs," she said.

'The best in society'

Flexible schedules are a big part of Café Inclusio's model. If an employee needs a break or gets overwhelmed by stimuli, they're encouraged to take five, said Perron.

"We flipped the script, in the sense that instead of us having a job description that the employees need to fit in, we are fitting the job description to the abilities of the employee," she said.

Seeing that in action almost moves Parker to tears.

"How can I say this without crying?" she said.

"Café Inclusio is a passion project with these three parents that had kids with special abilities … and they want to give other kids or young adults a chance to be able to shine and thrive. So Café Inclusio is, maybe what we can say is, the best in society."

The cafe is a lot of work for the three founding parents, who all balance their outside full-time employment with duties like payroll and ordering supplies. But as Boudreau sees her son Joël interact with customers and co-workers, it evens out.

"It means everything because from the beginning, all I ever wanted was for him to be happy."