Deaf Can! Coffee

Description:

Who Are We?

Deaf Can! Coffee exists to affirm young people in their identity as a Deaf person and as someone made in the image of God. Success is defined as young men and women accepting themselves, believing in their inherent gifts and talents, taking responsibility for their future and becoming a leader in their families, communities and careers. We are an outreach of HarvestCall Jamaica, a not-for-profit organization founded to obey God and love others.

How Did We Start?

At the root of Deaf Can! Coffee is the belief that Deaf people can do anything and lack nothing, even though we don’t hear with our ears. Society however doesn’t always agree and Deaf youth often face a negative stigma in their environment that creates a L-A-C-K in their life by excluding them and preventing access to Language, Affirmation, Community and Knowledge. To address this, a group of Deaf teen boys from Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf (Kingston, Jamaica) were taken on a field trip to meet Evelyn Clarke, a Deaf coffee farmer in Top Hill, St. Elizabeth. Clarke is a Deaf person proud of his Sign Language, Affirmed in his Deaf identity, Integral in his Community and very Knowledgeable in the art of growing and roasting coffee. With his inspiration and challenge, the teen students began roasting, packaging and selling coffee. Then they began brewing the coffee and a few months later opened up a small coffee shop at their school. Out of this was born the social enterprise Deaf Can! Coffee that trains students at the school and also operates in the public space via a mobile coffee shop, and one day soon we may even have a full-time shop!

What’s in our Logo?

The image of hands are representative of the Jamaican Sign Language expression meaning coffee; two fists stacked on each other, with the top hand rotating clockwise around the bottom fist. Imagine a hand held grinding mechanism where you manually had to rotate the shaft to grind coffee beans. For those who do not know the sign for coffee, we added the image of a coffee cup. The words Deaf Can are at our core and central to our message; Deaf people CAN DO anything that hearing people can do. The exclamation mark (!) is a critical component of our logo as it captures the emphasis of facial expression and body language expressed in JSL that cannot be shown by text. The color and free flowing design of the ! denotes the trademark artistic touch put into every caffe latte we serve.

Mission Statement:

We exist to inspire Deaf youth to believe in their talents and abilities, engage their passions and interests and foster creative, positive thought in a healthy community that builds each other up and equips them for life, work and family. We will accomplish this through a sustainable coffee venture known by customers for a great product, talented staff and enjoyable experience.