Lucy Geel (née Garaghty) was the daughter of Helen Garaghty, one of the founders of The Lucy G. Foundation and the Craft Cafe. Lucy was only 31 when she died tragically in 2015. Lucy had always said that her older sister Jo, who has a disability, taught her compassion, and she would take care of Jo in her later years. The Café is named in memory of Lucy, and honors her dream of a better future for Jo and others like her.  Jo loves working at the café.

The café was founded by Diana Phillips and Helen Garaghty. As an Occupational Therapist, Diana Phillips has for the past number of years worked in a therapeutic capacity with young adults who have a variety of disabilities.  She quickly realised the tremendous potential of these young adults as they were given new opportunities to learn and demonstrate their capabilities in her workshops.  However, the challenges in finding suitable employment in their communities led to much frustration for all involved.

Diana and Helen partnered with Michelle Roos, and the three directors explored the options for a viable business which could provide maximum employment opportunities and be adapted to accommodate the various levels of abilities. The venue had to be inclusive, accessible to all and located to facilitate other work opportunities. The Craft Café concept in Kirstenhof fit the bill.

And so LucyG was formed!

Approximately 7.5% (over 4 million) people in South Africa are disabled.  Of those capable of working, less than 1% are employed.  It is essential that more work places are educated to accommodate people with disabilities.  This has mutually beneficial outcomes for all involved.

LucyG is a ground-breaking institution in this regard, in that although the young adults employed have a wide variety of disabilities, LucyG focuses on the abilities.  We demonstrate that with the appropriate planning, training and flexibility, our staff can be productive and meaningfully employed, and often show themselves to be more capable than others initially gave them credit for. This attitude of inclusivity enhances not only their lives, but the lives of all that they come into contact with.

15 young adults are currently employed, and 2 are in training. They work a maximum of 3 shifts a week, with each shift lasting a maximum of 4 hours. We have the capacity to employ from 30 to 50 young adults per month, depending on the number of shifts each person works.

The young adults work shorter shifts to build up work endurance.  Simplified steps with visual cues are provided to facilitate the performance of each task.  The tasks and environment are also adapted so that each staff member can work in any area.

For example, one of the tasks is to making coffee.  We use plungers instead of machines, as they are simpler to work with, not noisy and will provide a good quality outcome of delicious coffee. There are color-coded measurements of coffee that are consistent for the different types of orders (i.e. cappuchino vs Latte), and visual cues which make it easy to follow the correct process of making them. Over time many of the staff no longer use the cues.

The aim in the longer term is for the café to become fully self-supporting from a commercial viewpoint, and to eventually afford a few permanent roles such as Manager, Occupational Therapist and Chef.  However, at this point, the café is still dependent on external sources of funds.  These are sourced through donations from the founders, their relatives and friends, some of the parents of the young adults, and from regular fund raising events.  Efforts are under way to connect with corporate or government sponsors to further assist in this regard.

Please refer to the how can I help section for more details.