Features / Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2020
Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2020, day 20: Step and Stone
A small bakery based at The Park in Knowle has had a “year of stops and starts”.
Baking fresh lavosh, all made by people with learning disabilities, Step and Stone is a place for people to connect with others and gain skills that can be transferred to paid employment.
Jane Chong and Jane Kippax co-founded Step and Stone as a bakery with a social purpose, providing experience and building the skills of young people with learning disabilities after leaving college.
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Both women have children with Down’s Syndrome and saw an opportunity to give their children, as well as other young people with Down’s Syndrome and other learning disabilities, a chance to build skills and make friends.
“2020 has certainly been a strange one for Step and Stone, as it has for everyone the world over,” say both Janes.
“It’s been a year of thinking of creative ways to continue to work with our young trainees, of trying to keep everyone connected so we can all weather this potentially very isolating and worrying time, and, not least, trying to keep us financially afloat so we can ensure our long-term viability.”
Jane Kippax and Jane Chong. Photo: Lowie Trevena
During the first lockdown, the pair had to shut the bakery, instead connecting with the young people they work with via Zoom.
“We’ve done bingo, quizzes, discos, baking sessions, craft sessions, and celebrated plenty of birthdays online, with the only thing missing being cake!
“We have also started to deliver some of our skills development online, and if Covid-19 has had a silver lining for us, it has been to show us how much we can use technology to enhance our service delivery alongside the physical work in the bakery.”
The bakery was able to reopen in July, but with everyone socially distanced. This means the organisation hasn’t been able to produce as many goods as usual, but has ensured the safety of everyone involved.
The young people who bake lavosh at Step and Stone show the world that people with Down’s Syndrome and other additional needs are capable of working in a skilled, social environment.
The young people at the bakery bake five flavours of lavosh. Photo: Lowie Trevena
The bakery produces five flavours of lavosh flatbread, which is stocked in Better Food and No.12 Easton, as well as further afield in Bath, Somerset and Lincolnshire.
“We are all so much looking forward to 2021,” the pair says. “The recent developments with the vaccine mean that normality is on the horizon, and we can’t wait to get back into our busy bakery with our full complement of staff and trainees.
“Step and Stone was set up to improve the employment prospects for people with learning disabilities, and we can’t wait to further this in 2021!”
Main photo: Lowie Trevena
Read more: The bakery with a social purpose
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