FERNDALE, Mich. (WXYZ) — A coffee shop that helps young adults with intellectual disabilities gain important job skills has opened a new location in Ferndale.
It has the look of your everyday coffee shop, but its purpose is greater.
”In the future, I would like to be a chef,” said Jaykayla Moses, a student with Rising Stars Academy.
Inside of Treat Dreams in Ferndale, the Rising Stars Academy Foundation has opened its latest Gather + Grounds store,
“It's really just a place to come together and for everyone to be accepted,” says Andrew Campbell, Executive Pastry Chef with Rising Stars Academy Foundation.
Rising Stars Academy is a post-secondary school for young adults with intellectual disabilities.
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Gather + Grounds, an initiative that began in 2023, gives those students a chance to go into the community and pick up work skills.
“One of my favorite things is finding that one or two things that they really thrive at and helping them build and grow and just seeing the excitement,” Campbell said.
Students like Carl Bates, who says he enjoys putting a meal together.
“I cook outside at my house. I help my mom with some cooking. Yeah, I want to be a cook. I want to be a chef one day,” Bates said.
He admitted that developing his culinary skills hasn't been easy, but it's been very rewarding.
“It was challenging, but I got the hang of it and I got used to it. Making sandwiches, I got used to that. So it felt really great,” Bates said.
Campbell said it's also rewarding for those teaching.
“That's one thing I look for to every day is going and teaching them and just how eager and willing they are to learn and just be thought of as normal, which they are,” Campbell said.
With Gather + Grounds shops in Center Line, Richmond, and now Ferndale, students said more people getting an opportunity to get involved is welcomed.
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“I hope they get to learn new things and stuff like that, I hope they do,” Moses said.
“It helps a lot. I'm excited this place is open,” Bates said.
