Future spaces

Cups clink. Coffee brews. Around the tables, people chat. 

Behind the counter, warm beverages await, served by café volunteer Maddy Workman. Maddy’s working her usual weekly shift. It’s a Monday morning and Maddy keeps the mood light as she chats with her customers. 

In this café, it’s not only the conversation that’s free. So are the ample beverages and fresh fruit. At Hope House, their café is open to everyone in the community. 

Hope House is a non-profit in Guelph, Ontario. Their purpose? To nourish hope through community. They’ve been running community programming since 2012—and in the near future, Hope House will become the next Community Food Centre

Here in the welcoming spaces at Hope House, food connects people. They gather to share food and grow food. They make food, and they advocate to make food more accessible. Through all of this, they find and make community too.

Maddy is 24. She has wide-ranging music tastes, but she especially loves Taylor Swift and The Chicks. She’s been volunteering at Hope House for a year.

If you ask Maddy what makes a space welcoming for her, she’s quick with her answer: “Automatic doors. That’s number one. Number two, accessible washrooms. And that’s just the built environment.” 

To that list, she adds: “That people don’t treat me differently because I’m in a wheelchair. That they just talk to me and treat me as they would anyone else.”

Maddy, who lives with cerebral palsy, elaborates: “Some people, they’ll be surprised that I’m out and about and volunteering, and they think it’s amazing that I don’t let my disability stop me. Or they pity me and they feel sorry that I’m in a wheelchair. I just don’t like that interaction.” 

At the café, Maddy keeps the coffee flowing for her customers, along with some friendly chat. She knows her regular customers’ orders by heart, which leaves room to chat about other topics. As Maddy says, “I try to talk to people. Have a little conversation.” 

At Hope House, Maddy is not simply someone to be welcomed. She helps to make the space welcoming too. 

In fact, going into the future, Maddy’s career will involve making spaces welcome by design. In 2019/20, she completed a pre-technology program. Since then, she’s been studying architecture.

Her career goal? “To help design buildings to be accessible.”

As she speaks about her studies, Maddy smiles. “I love using the design software. It’s fun, watching a building design come together.” 

Working at Hope House Café is fun too. “I enjoy being out and helping.”