ECEVIT: We take people here at face value,
we don’t judge, whoever you are, whatever you need, if we can help, we will.
COMM: In East London, a coffee shop has opened,
employing people who have experienced homelessness in the past. Second Shot was founded by Julius
Ibrahim. He dropped out of university and started a crowd fund campaign to get the social
enterprise off the ground.
JULIUS IBRAHIM: I moved to London in 2013
and I was just kind of surprised that there wasn’t anything more being done to alleviate
the problem. So, I just wanted to kind of do something and the raise the profile of
the issue, really and yeah, I just had a passion for coffee and passion for the industry.
COMM: Ecevit Tahsin, also known as Edge, works
at Second Shot.
ECEVIT TAHSIN: My own experience of homelessness
is a very dark, very cold place. I used to be a pastry chef. I was with a partner at
the time. I came home one night from work to find that she was messing about with someone
in the house. We split up and because everything was in her name, I ended up on the streets.
If you can imagine winter, freezing cold in a sleeping bag, trying to keep warm, trying to sleep.
COMM: During his time on the streets, Edge
started using heroin.
ECEVIT TAHSIN: Being on the drugs, I’m not
gonna say it helped me, but it makes you numb, so you don’t feel what’s going on around
you. But once my family found out I was on drugs, they kind of pushed me away. Nobody
really understood me, what I was going through, what I was feeling and I was very isolated.
COMM: Edge managed to get himself off heroin
and after living in hostels and temporary accommodation, he’s now being given his
own flat. He’s been working at Second Shot since it opened in May 2016.
ECEVIT TAHSIN: Being here has really given
me a sense of purpose and helping me to re-establish my life.
COMM: Emilio is the head of coffee at Second
Shot. He’s been training the homeless employees working at the café.
EMILIO RODRIGUEZ: We started the training
two weeks before we open. The idea of working with people who have been under a lot of like
disadvantages, and they don’t trust people, you see, they don’t, they have a lot of
issues in terms of like they don’t think that they are good enough for anything. We
are trying to get the best coffee we can and at the same time helping the community around here.
COMM: As well as training people who’ve
lived on the streets, Second Shot also gives free food and drink to the homeless.
JULIUS IBRAHIM: With our loyalty card, after
six times, each customer can get a free coffee but if they want to after three, what you
can do is rip it half and hand it to someone on the street, that they can use to come in
and get a free coffee. Our ‘pay it forward’ system is where our customers pre-pay for
something, so that later someone off the streets can get it for free. Our customers have really
embraced the idea and got behind it. We’ve given away almost 300 meals.
MAN: I’m a homeless person at the moment.
I come in here every day and to get a free coffee and every time I come in here I always
get a big ‘hello’. In fact, these people, sometimes wouldn’t have anywhere to get
anything to eat.
JULIUS IBRAHIM: The average person in the
UK is only two paycheques away from becoming homeless. So, literally it can happen to anyone,
and breaking down that social stigma, and getting people to understand, and getting
people to give you a second shot is really challenging.
COMM: Last year there was a 30% increase in
the number of people living on the streets in England.
COMM: Lack of work is a major cause and consequence
of homelessness.
EMILIO RODRIGUEZ: The most rewarding part
for me is doing what I love the most and also having it, making it for a good reason. Every
day our customers come here and they are really happy with us, they love what we do.
ECEVIT TAHSIN: I’ve been given a lot of
responsibility. There is not many places like this where someone from the street can come
in and feel like a part of the community. That for me really hits it home.