ESC: Volunteering at Café Utopia

Café Utopia aims to employ citizens in Holstebro Municipality who have mental health issues in relation to their working life. The café consists of around 35 to 40 employees. Of the staff, only three employees are exempt from having mental health issues, so the majority have different struggles in their life. Holstebro municipality is the employer of the café, and the café works as a municipal offer for mentally challenged citizens where specific measures have been taken in order for them to be able to be part of a workplace. This is done by organizing a workday where each individual thrives in relation to appropriate hours, tasks and challenges. Apart from the settings being customized for the employees, we are also accommodating them mentally by being there for them, challenging them and working with their social skills or other specific difficulties that they might have or need to work with. By working with them mentally and creating these specific schedules, tasks and accommodating the individuals when they have special needs, we are able to keep them in what we call meaningful employment. And we call it that because by keeping them employed they gain quality of life and feel important and needed - and, very importantly, they feel less sick and less part of the “system”. This has a great impact on how they identify as contributors and employees compared to being sick and inside the system. Ultimately the goal is to maintain them in employment; by taking these - for them - important special measures, they are often able to obtain a job (for instance a flexjob), pay tax and be part of society on their own terms. Besides serving food the café also hosts art exhibitions, lectures, staff gatherings and meetings about employees’ wellbeing. To this end, the café is a public place that invites the citizens of Holstebro in. In this way, we are part of breaking taboos and stigmatization by showing that people with mental health issues are people too, and they are able to do good work and serve great food with the obstacles that they may have. The cafe is fully public and everyone is welcome during our opening hours. We thereby have a broad target group, from the people who work in the cafe to the people visiting us and being guests by us. Next to that, we also have a focus on serving more sustainable and climate-friendly food in our cafe. Therefore we offer and work with serving vegetarian and vegan alternatives. Our ambition is to create interesting and tempting dishes which can change perceptions of more climate-friendly food.