The project from Team Domenica, a charity that provides innovative and tailored employment programmes to people with learning disabilities and autism, has seen the launch of the North Star in the West Sussex town.
The pub, which was opened by Team Domenica founder Baroness Rosea Monckton MBE, along with BAFTA winning actress Marisa Abela and food writer Nigella Lawson, is the first on-trade operation for the charity which currently runs three cafes and coffee roastery.
The pub aims to provide a space where young people with learning disabilities and autism can gain real-world hospitality training while providing the wider community with exceptional food drink and service.
Speaking at the launch, Baroness Monckton said: “We started Team Domenica nine years ago, with twenty young people and one small café. Now we support over one hundred candidates, run three cafés, a coffee roastery, and now this game-changing pub. It will become a cultural landmark in Brighton and a beacon of hope for people with learning disabilities and their families.”
Hands-on learning
The pub has taken design cues from Brighton’s Graham Greene era of the 1930s, when the building houses the Brighton Herald newspaper. Above the pub the charity has created a dedicated education, training and employment centre which will deliver classroom learning alongside hands-on hospitality experience.
The aim of the pub and the centre above is to work towards supporting young people with disabilities into paid employment, and the charity already boasts a remarkable success employment rate of more than 80% through its existing programmes. It has placed over 130 young people across 60 businesses ranging from the NHS to Nandos and Hilton.
All profits generated through the pub will fund the charity’s programmes and candidates will begin training at the North Star in the New Year.