Popular cafe offering vital experiences to young adults with special needs nominated for national award

The Place To Bee, in Harborough Road, is a cafe and old-fashioned sweetshop associated with Northgate School Academy Trust and The Beehive.

Run by Trudi Daurie, students are welcomed to work in the cafe – which gives them experience they might not otherwise gain to help them excel in the working world.

The Place to Bee has been nominated in the ‘community organisation for disability award’ category at the National Diversity Awards, which Trudi says is “wonderful” and “heartwarming”.

Supporters are flooding their online voting page with lovely comments about what the cafe adds to the community, and the support offered to students, young people and their families.

The environment is praised as “jolly and friendly”, and the fact it offers a space where people know they can visit if they are not feeling their best and want to talk to someone.

“People are impressed that the students run the cafe, and we stand back and let them get on with it,” said Trudi. “Some wish there were cafes like this all over the country.

“One lad has been coming here for two years and his mum says it is the best place on earth. We understand the complexity of his needs. He was a fairly quiet soul when he first joined and now he has found his voice.

“We give young people the confidence to know they can do it. We are a place for everybody and our aim is to move them all forward into other jobs and volunteering opportunities.”

Trudi says it would “mean the world” to the entire team for the community to show their support and vote for them. It would be the “icing on the cake” to the hard work everyone puts in.

“I can’t imagine it but it would be amazing to win,” said Trudi. “It would raise the profile of our organisation, school, cafe and sweetshop. We are confident in how we run the place, but it’s nice to have that extra bit of recognition.”

For more information and to keep up to date with The Place To Bee, visit their Facebook page here.