The Second Chance Cafe aims to help brain injury survivors rebuild their lives and get back into the workforce.
The cafe, operated by the Cridge Centre for Family, offers an opportunity for survivors of brain injury to gain some employment readiness skills and get back into the work force in an accommodated and flexible and safe setting.
“We know that a lot of time survivors, it’s a challenge to get back into the work force,” Tori Dach, The Cridge Centre for the Family manager of brain injury services, said.
The BC Brain Injury Association says many people correlate brain injuries with sports, adding that is not the case.
“We’re looking at strokes, aneurysms, tumors, near death drownings, car crashes, falls for seniors,” Janelle Breese Biagioni, BC Brain injury Association CEO, said.
Statistics show 1.6 million Canadian’s are living with brain injury.
Breese Biagioni says that number is likely significantly adding overdose and intimate partner violence survivors are being added to the brain injury list as survivors of both can sustain injuries similar to a concussion.
“For every one NHL player who suffered a concussion in the game of hockey, 7,000 Canadian women have sustained the same type of brain injury from intimate partner violence,” she said.
Breese Biagioni says brain injury survivors can suffer various symptoms including memory loss, problems regulating emotions, fatigue, as well as hearing and vision loss.
Adding those symptoms can be temporary, permanent or fluctuate over time.
Dach says this can make it hard and overwhelming for people to re-enter the workforce, with some not being able to return to their previous jobs.
She says the cafe various uses strategies to help brain injury survivors slowly get back into the workforce.
These strategies include being flexible with employee schedules, sending out shift reminders and constantly checking in with the employees.
“We also love having volunteers as part of our team. Just somebody who can walk alongside the survivor if there’s particular tasks that are difficult or reminders that are needed in order to do that same task again,” Dach said.
Edwin Bergsson, a brain injury survivor working at the cafe, says these strategies are essential.
“It immensely helps,” he said.
Bergsson suffered his brain injury after an overdose in his recording studio six years ago.
He says it was very nerve wracking to go back to work after being released from the hospital.
“I wasn’t sure I was able to do it,” Bergsson said.
He says there is so much support at the cafe and he’s “so blessed to have been given the opportunity to be apart of this.”
The cafe serves coffee, tea, housemade baked good and light snacks.
Dach says all the cafe’s profits go into supports for brain injury survivors, like operating the cafe and it’s employee wages.
Adding the best way to support is to coming by for a cup of coffee.
“We would love to have people here, we would love for you to do a meeting here, bring your friends down here, come be a part of the community,” Dach said.
