Located in The Windrush Leisure Centre in Witney’s Witan Way is a social enterprise café with a difference. Run by Oxfordshire charity The Yellow Submarine, the café not only sells delicious freshly-made food and drinks but also creates incredible, life-changing opportunities for young people with additional needs.
The café is currently supporting four talented disabled individuals to complete a bespoke traineeship, transitioning from education to employment. If you have not heard of The Yellow Submarine Café before, isn’t it time you paid them a visit? The coffee shop, located on the first floor of the Leisure Centre, is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5.45pm and on Saturdays from 8am until 1pm (closed Sundays). You do not have to be using the Leisure Centre’s sporting facilities to use the café.
Yellow Submarine was established in 2009 by the Staveley family. One of their family members, Max, suffered from Down Syndrome and when he needed a holiday, the cost could be astronomical as he required multiple carers, their food, accommodation, and travel costs, all to be added to his travel costs. With Max’s dream holiday being a visit to Disneyland, Toby and Lucy Staveley drew on their existing skills and created Yellow Submarine. Their aim was to run holidays for people in Max’s situation together with their families or carers too. By piloting a modest number of small group breaks, bringing together people with similar interests, whilst keeping costs as low as possible, using willing friends and family as volunteers. The breaks they created were affordable and fun whilst providing the necessary support and care. They went on to establish Yellow Submarine as a charity in 2010, appointing Trustees and started to employ a small group of people to help them develop the services they can provide to young people with learning disabilities and autism. Sadly, Max passed away, but his memory lives on.
As well as the Social Enterprise café in the Witney Leisure Centre, Yellow Submarine runs a café in Park End Street near the Oxford Railway Centre and will be opening a new Community Hub in Abingdon’s Charter building in the next few months. On average, 70,000 customers visit the cafés annually in Witney and Oxford, attracted by the quality of the coffee and food on offer. The charity’s ‘Life-Changing Bakes’ also gives trainees at Yellow Submarine the chance to learn new baking skills, and produce delicious cookies, tarts, celebration cakes and tray bakes, all sold exclusively at their cafes and available online at yellowsubmarineshop.org.
Through the work that Yellow Submarine do supporting people with additional needs and their families, they can support and train members, preparing them for employment and independent living as they move into adulthood. If you are interested in being part of this caring charity, check out their website for vacancies and volunteering opportunities.
To find out more about the charity please visit yellowsubmarine.org.uk and yellowsubmarineshop.org/cafes.
