Change Please - New Cafe!

“The average Londoner buys two coffees every single day.

If you knew you could change someone’s life, simply by changing where you buy your coffee, wouldn’t you do it?”

Change Please are expanding our operations!

Since launching in November 2015, we've seen a wonderful response to our work and we'd now like to open up a café to expand our operations, increase our impact, and to work towards our aim -  to put an end to homelessness once and for all.

Who are Change Please?

We are a social enterprise that train and employ homeless people to work as Baristas on our mobile coffee vans and at our fixed sites dotted around London.

We’re a beneficiary focused organisation – our homeless Baristas are at the core of everything we do.

We pay London Living Wage and offer support with housing by acting as guarantors, making direct payments and underwriting tenancies to ensure our Baristas’ living situations are secure.

We offer support with mental wellbeing, both as an organisation and through referrals to our partners, to ensure our Baristas have access to all of the services they require.

We also provide additional training in essentials like health and safety, cash handling and customer service, to equip our Baristas with the skills and experience necessary to progress into onward employment in higher paying roles.

Our ‘jobs-first’ approach offers a sustainable platform from which our beneficiaries can rebuild their lives.

Our beneficiaries are our greatest asset and they are incredibly loyal and hard-working people.

Our work also shows to the public, employers and business owners, the vast amount of skills, knowledge and experience of people experiencing homelessness.

Change Please want to help create a world where employers around the globe recognise the value in employing members of the homeless community.

How much of a problem is homelessness?

Since 2010 homelessness has almost doubled in the UK.

Every night more than 4,000 people sleep rough across the country (CrisisUK).

This is unacceptable.

Change Please are doing everything we can to reduce this number.

The impact of being homeless is completely devastating, resulting in physical and mental health issues, feelings of isolation, and numerous barriers that prevent those experiencing homelessness from getting back into employment. 

According to Crisis UK:

• Only 2 percent of homeless people are in full-time employment
• 12 percent work part-time
• 57 percent have been unemployed for three years or more
• With an employment rate of just 15 percent, homeless people are five times less likely than the wider population to be in employment yet the vast majority of homeless people want to work either now (77%) or in the future (97%).

We believe that homeless people are being let down by society.

Focus shouldn’t be on removing the problem from the public eye, or on homeless people being a ‘problem to solve’.

It should instead be on offering this group the help they need while encouraging the public to support companies with a social mission that will help to eradicate the problem…companies like Change Please.

Can people’s love of coffee really solve homelessness? 

We certainly think so…

The coffee industry is growing at a rapid rate…

• The number of coffee outlets in the UK is set to rise from 18,000 in 2015 to 21,000 by 2020
• The British Hospitality Association (BHA) has revealed that the coffee industry is the fourth largest employer in the UK, with 4.49 million employees
• Over the last five years, 331,000 new jobs have been created and the BHA predicts that a further 100,000 roles will be delivered by the end of the decade

Despite this growing demand, the hospitality industry is currently undergoing a major skills shortage in the UK, across Europe, and further afield in the USA, Australia, and Canada – all countries where homelessness is rising.

With the BHA warning that the UK industry could face a shortfall of 60,000 workers per year…there is no reason why, if equipped with all the necessary skills and training, that people experiencing homelessness shouldn’t take these roles.

This café will help us to spread the Change Please message and equip our Baristas with the skills that mean employers can’t say no!

THE IMPACT OF ONE FIXED SITE IN ONE YEAR

One, well-positioned site has the potential to convert thousands of people to Change Please coffee, especially as they won't have to compromise on taste - Change Please coffee has a taste rating of +86 when compared to Starbucks’ 36.

Many people will happily spend £6 or more per day on their coffees - we're providing them with a better option. Coffee that doesn't just taste good, it does good too. 

One of our mobile coffee vans employs up to four people per year. A fixed site gives us the ability to double that - to employ eight people every year.

Wider benefits:

• The café has the potential to save local councils over a hundred thousand in benefit payments each year.
• Brings together the community
• Communicates how much people experiencing homelessness have to offer

"Change Please is like a light out of the darkness"

Liam, Change Please Barista

Please help us to fund this new fixed site and to help more people by supporting our Crowdfunder.

The Change Please Team x