How café is helping Ely volunteer breed confidence in bid to find work
The café's aiming to give people with learning disabilities the skills needed for later life
A volunteer has said how a community café in Ely is helping build up the confidence she needs to be ready for the workplace.
New Leaf Café on High Barns has been undergoing a major refurbishment and has now reopened to the public.
The venue is one of three run by Cambridgeshire County Council, which gives autistic adults and those with learning disabilities the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a welcoming environment and become more involved in their local community.
Mary, 21, with Down's Syndrome has been volunteering at New Leaf for the last few months.
"I feel quite enthusiastic I would say; it's one of my ultimate powers!" she said.
"(I've built) mainly confidence; I've always been this confident self anyway, getting excited, a smile on my face as I come in."
'Limited options'
The café is part of the county council's Supporting into Work Programme, which aims to create places where people with learning disabilities can learn the skills needed to live independently.
Other sites that are part of the Programme include Hot Pots Coffee Shop in March and Blossom and Bloom Community Café in Huntingdon.
So far, New Leaf Café has around four volunteers with the council looking to encourage more local people through its doors.
"I think their options are very limited at times, so any option that will give them a push into the wider world of full-time employment is fantastic," Gary Wing, employment co-ordinator at New Leaf, said.
"More of the bigger businesses need to embrace these young people; working in this sector is the best job in the world, so when you get to see progression, it's amazing."
Helping people into work 'like anyone else'
At New Leaf, volunteers are encouraged to build on both their kitchen and cooking skills, such as preparing a selection of cakes, savoury foods and taking customer orders.
According to the National Autistic Society, around three in 10 autistic people are in work.
While in the 2024-25 financial year, Government figures show 34% of disabled people with an autism diagnosis were employed, compared to 55.3% of all people with disabilities.
"The Supporting into Work Programme is precisely to help people with learning disabilities to give them the confidence, training, to be able to move to an independent life and be able to work, just like anyone else," Councillor Luis Navarro, vice-chair of the county council's adults and health committee, said.
"It's the kind of action we as a council have the opportunity to trigger."