By Courtney Ceccarini

The eager girl sat waiting by the phone in her Pennsylvania home, her fingers wrapped in her brown hair that reached just above her earlobes as she anticipated a ring that never came. As time went on, her confidence dwindled due to being overlooked by so many employers. By the time Emma Hines graduated from high school, she had applied to over a dozen part-time jobs with no interviews, follow-ups, or responses.

Emma was one of over 24,000 individuals with a disability who are unemployed in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2018, Emma’s family moved seven hours to North Carolina.

She began studying creative writing at Guilford College. In the first few months, she hadn’t made a lot of friends, and as a way to make new connections, she continued the search for a job. With the same results she saw from her home state, she grew more anxious and felt ready to give up. As she scrolled through different media platforms daily, she came across an open position for a cashier at a very special coffee shop opening around the block from her home.

“I saw a post for a job that would focus toward people with mental and physical disabilities,” Emma said. Having autism, she thought, “this describes me, so I’m gonna go ahead and apply.”

Emma applied to A Special Blend, a coffee shop located on West Market Street in Greensboro. Its main purpose is to create a better quality of life for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and promote a more inclusive society.

The sunlit coffee shop, with different seating spread throughout for people to come and enjoy a cup of coffee or hold meetings, is filled with the warm essence of freshly brewed coffee grounds. The cozy environment is led by a group of workers of all different abilities.

“Walking into this coffee shop is not like walking into a Starbucks or a Dunkin’,” Makayla Stapler, a frequent customer of A Special Blend, says. “When you walk in here, you get a sense of community and inclusion, and when you walk out, you’re left with a new outlook on opportunities.”

Opportunity is a big part of what A Special Blend has given Emma.

At the beginning of her career, she struggled to overcome her own criticisms. “Am I gonna be able to do this? How am I going to balance this with my school?” Emma says. “Cause I was in college at the time. So this could be a lot.”

As she got more comfortable as a cashier, she let go of a lot of her doubts. She began to enjoy the work in front of her. She embraced what her tasks were and even found parts of the job she loved. Her favorite part of being a cashier has been getting the chance to be the first face customers see and being the strand of communication from the counter to the baristas. She made new connections with both the customers and the employees.

Because of A Special Blend, Emma has seen transitions in her everyday life. She is more confident and ready to take on whatever is thrown her way.

“I did a talent show, and I am not comfortable singing in front of people as a soloist, but I’m like, I’m just going to do it this year,” Emma says. “I did it, and it was so much fun, and I was really glad I did it.”

Five years later, Emma is the shift manager and describes her duties as a little bit of everything. From training new employees to answering phone calls and taking inventory.

“Emma is my favorite manager here. We used to go to the same church, and she has become my favorite friend,” Nick Bahr, a full-time barista, says.

Nick started working at A Special Blend two years ago after volunteering in his community.

Nick has a kinesthetic learning style and is grateful for Emma and the rest of the team for their patience and ability to adapt to his type of learning when it comes to being a barista.

“I’m not a normal person that learns by telling. I learn virtually and visually. I’m a person that finishes on their own time,” Nick explains.

A Special Blend is a place of work that encourages and embraces all learning styles. The shop holds events regularly as a way to spread awareness and encourage the community to get involved. On the screen in the meeting room, customers can learn about all the different events. Every fourth Thursday of the month, A Special Blend hosts an ASL night. People in the community can come for two hours and learn American Sign Language. For the last hour, they are encouraged to stay and socialize while practicing what they have learned for one another.

A Special Blend has been named the best coffee shop in Greensboro and the most outstanding employer. Due to its success, it has been cleared for its second location on Main Street in High Point.

This location opened earlier this fall, giving 35 more hopeful people in the community a place to call work.

Nick is honored to be passing on what Emma has taught him as he trains this location’s new employees.