How to make people shine

I found this pic online so it is not one of my photo's. See original here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/weddingsinkent/

Bijschrift toevoegen

During a recent short trip to the Dover area on the Kent coast I came across a lovely place. The tea room in the old chapel in St. Margareth's at Cliffe a few miles outside of Dover. This is one of he lovely small villages you find all over Britain, and as the weather was not too good pouring down rain and windy we decided we were badly in need of a cup of tea and some cake.

We soon found a tea room in an old chapel and the idea of having tea here appealed to us. The setting was lovely and as it was not busy we could sit were we wanted. And very friendly staff greeted us. It was apparant straight away that the staff was not like you see in most restaurants. This was a project to help people with learning dissabilites get skills and job experience.
 
The service was excellent, fast, very friendly. While we were sipping our tea and eating heavenly lemon cake, I could not help observe them work. Seeing one of the girls go to a boy and telling him how well he had done this morning just warmed my heart. Our society is so quick to exclude people who are somehow 'different.' A project like this makes them shine and shows to the world that they CAN do jobs just like everybody else, they are not so different. It is we who judge and put people in boxes. Let's start more projects like this, and bosses take a chance on hiring someone whom you think is different. You might be very pleasantly surprised.