Cafés Joyeux are exported to New York

“Inclusion has no borders,” enthuses Yann Bucaille-Lanrezac, founder of Cafés Joyeux, these establishments employing people with mental disabilities. After Belgium and Portugal, these brands with their golden yellow storefronts are crossing the Atlantic to set up shop in the heart of Manhattan, New York. After two years of work and thanks to funding from American donors, a 21st Café Joyeux is opening this March 21 - the date of International Down Syndrome Day. The café will run thanks to 14 "team members" with mental disabilities, and 3 professional managers of catering.

“In a country with 7 million disabled people, 80% to 90% of whom do not work in an ordinary environment, we have the ambition to change the way we look at disability – especially here, at the heart of global finance,” says Yann Bucaille-Lanrezac. This new location will also sell its Brooklyn-roasted coffee, “to support the mission.” “The objective is to achieve balance by showing that our teammates are capable of creating value,” explains the founder. The specificity of the Cafés Joyeux model is that a “foundation is a sole shareholder. The cafes are therefore owned by a selfless organization, which serves a mission and not dividends,” he explains. At a time when “1% to 2% of the population is being sidelined”, “everyone needs to get involved. And it’s quite simple: just go and have a coffee.”