Dear Friends,

I never write for our blogs but I wanted to share this glimmer of hope.

This weekend, an acquaintance of a friend of a friend asked me to view a French film called “No Filter Café” at a Socially Relevant Film Festival in NYC. 

It’s a film in French about 5 young men diagnosed with severe autism.  Professionals in the autism field were hoping to build a future for young adults in this pilot program. The film depicts teaching all facets of food and restaurant preparation.  It examines the journey to create a café in the middle of Paris run by autistic individuals.  It took one-on-one staff and experts in the food industry 2 years to build the café and prepare the young men for employment.  There was much repetition and lots of practice.

The Café Program itself was inspired by Laurence Melloul Piou who is the Director of IME Cour de Venise – Autisme en Ile de France.  The film is directed and produced by Galaad Hemsi and Coralie Van Rietschoten.  Galaad is a parent of a young, non verbal ASD child.

I hope some of you will be able to view this inspiring film with subtitles to see how much hope we can hold for our severely impaired students.  I saw token boards, reward times, positive reinforcement, and lots of skill building. 

I was moved to tears, seeing profoundly autistic people reaching their potential and learning to enjoy their work.  There was hope, lots of hope, in this film.

There are many programs at many of our schools and we’d love to hear what you are doing to get our students ready for employment, both supportive and independent.

Let’s stay connected!

Julie

Learn More

Learn more about the Socially Relevant Film Festival through Film Freeway.

Synopsis

Élie, Gabriel, Raphaël, Steeve, and Saïd are five teenagers with autism. While their paths would typically lead them to medicalized institutions, isolated from the world, an innovative project is reshaping these predetermined trajectories. Over several years, these young people will take part in a training program to learn culinary skills, plate presentation, order taking, and table service, all the way to running a real café in the heart of Paris.

Point of view

We often talk about inclusion for people with disabilities. But what about autistic individuals with severe challenges? There are still far too few initiatives truly dedicated to them. Their daily lives are often met with barriers, too easily summed up in one phrase: “It’s impossible.” A phrase that parents and professionals hear all too often. And yet, their differences shouldn’t exclude them, they belong in our shared world, bringing their own unique value to it. These individuals are a full part of our society, and it’s time to envision true inclusion, one that leaves no one behind. That’s exactly what’s happening at Notre Café: a unique community restaurant where young people from the IME Cour de Venise gradually learn the codes of working life in a setting tailored to their needs. For several years, we followed them from their very first class to the realization of a project that, not long ago, many would have called impossible.

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