From left: Store Manager Carlyle Gabbidon, Travis Kerr, Dimel Ballen, Javannie Dawes and Jerome Pindling. Mikey Wilson/Freelance Photographer

Deaf Can! Coffee to complete expansion in August 2022

A deaf person can do anything

Deaf Can! Coffee is paving the way in educating and employing young men and women on how to roast, brew, and sell coffee.

With a full-time staff of 13 and 12 students enrolled at a time in their training program, the organization offers graduates several employment opportunities upon completion. The program is flexible, depending on the time the student applies, and can take as little as two weeks or as long as two years to be completed. The goal is to enter the workforce immediately afterward.

The uniqueness of the program is creating awareness in the community. Not only is coffee consumption on the rise with the locals, but it’s also organically generating a newfound appreciation for the coffee bean. There’s no one else roasting coffee and offering cold-brewed coffee on tap.

This unique barista program started with deaf students from the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf taking a field trip to a local coffee farm owned and run by a deaf farmer. Everlin Clarke, the inspirational coffee farmer, was confident, knowledgeable and a stable family man. He was a physical, tangible example that a deaf person could do anything.

Before this experience, the students faced the same problems that others do in the deaf community, including language access and being looked down upon by those without a hearing impairment. It was at this moment in time when their outlook shifted. Clarke told the students, “If you believe you can’t, you never will.”

In February 2020, Deaf Can! created history when it became the first company to be listed on the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange (JSSE).

The company fielded a coffee growing and coffee brewing/barista project for funding which was underwritten by the NCB Foundation and NCB Capital Markets Limited whose combined contribution of $7.5 million led to the listing.

The JSSE, as outlined by the Jamaica Stock Exchange, was launched to build social capital and fund organizations such as Deaf Can! which are in dire need.

Deaf Can! through its coffee business, has employed young people who otherwise would not have received employment because of their disability.

In an update provided on February 10, 2022, Blake Widmer, CEO of Deaf Can! Jamaica indicated that “The JSSE project integrates and benefits the whole enterprise by providing increased coffee production on the farm (going from 1.5 acres to three acres).

Carlyle Gabbidon Deaf Can! Coffee

The company has since been able to procure capital equipment for the processing of coffee which will enable them to buy more competitively on the market, and create further service opportunities for other coffee companies.

The development, he said, has facilitated the processing of coffee “literally from the seed in the ground to the sip in your cup.”

He noted as well that exposure through the JSE has lent “credibility to and strengthens our brand awareness.”

The company has not received any new funding since the final quarter of 2021 but has nevertheless been able to procure additional coffee processing equipment in the form of an Ikawa Sample Roaster.

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