We are on the main deck of the Nova School of Business & Economics in Carcavelos. Right next to the café is a huge bunch of yellow balloons, accompanied by a phrase written on the wall: “The first Café Joyeux in a school served by extraordinary people”. Sofia and José, aged 21 and 26, are two of those extraordinary people.
“I really like working here because I make friends and practise my English,” says Sofia. José underlines the atmosphere: “It gives me a lot of pleasure: there is a lot of team spirit, we can socialise and talk…”. The two still have fresh memories of the inauguration of the room on 27 February, with a full house and the right to take selfies with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The pride is more than understandable: this is the brand’s first charity café to open its doors in a school.
The initiative, organised by Nova SBE, is part of the protocol between NOVA University Lisbon, the Directorate General for Higher Education and Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, which reaffirms the commitment to raise awareness in the academic community about the integration of people with disabilities, including students, in the labour market.
But the story of Café Joyeux in Portugal goes back to the time when Filipa Pinto Coelho and João Gomes da Silva were expecting a baby diagnosed with Down syndrome. The first feeling was one of strangeness, due to the lack of knowledge of the reality that was to come, what a new world that was going to be in front of him. And he realised that his fear was the fear of most parents, because these differences are so far removed from our lives.
The way Filipa sees life and is in it, communicating in a positive way, building bridges and finding solutions, made her feel that she had a role to play here: bringing two worlds together with a positive message, simplifying and inviting society to be part of the process.
This is how VilacomVida was born, in 2016, to find an autonomous life response for people with intellectual and developmental difficulties (IDD) in the transition from school to active adult life.
Bringing society closer to difference, bringing it to the center of our lives, was the solution they found, through something we do every day: like going to a café.
This is how the CafécomVida project began, which they opened in Lisbon. But at the same time, news arrived that would change everything: the opening of the second Café Joyeux in France. Then it was fate that ruled everything else.
Today, with the opening of the space at Nova SBE, there are now five commercial establishments of the brand in Portugal – in addition to the 22 that have spread throughout France, also reaching Brussels and New York.
At the counter, and very soon, via the Café Joyeux app, Nova SBE students can now enjoy Joyeux menus, whether to eat in or take away. Everything served with heart and lots of joy. And the photographs of the inauguration, below, leave no doubt.
About Café Joyeux: Café Joyeux is the first family of supportive and inclusive café-restaurants, born in France in 2017, which employs and trains people with intellectual and developmental difficulties. A pioneering concept brought to Portugal by the VilacomVida Association in 2021, when it opened its first café-restaurant on Rua de São Bento, in Lisbon.
About VilacomVida: VilacomVida currently has a total of 5 Cafés Joyeux in Lisbon and Cascais and manages a Zara Home store, part of the “For & From” project, located at the Freeport Lisboa Fashion Outlet, in Alcochete, directly employing a total of 37 people with functional diversity.
