Universo Santi
Spain
Finca El Altillo., Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
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English article
Why Universo Santi is my favorite restaurant January 2020
A Spanish restaurant where people with special needs work. Focus on people's abilities, not their disabilitiesJanuary 2020
A restaurant where all of the staff members have disabilities “changed my life.” June 2019 There's something different and a little special about Universo Santi, a restaurant in the southern Spanish city of Jerez. be. "People don't come here because the staff are disabled, but because this is the best restaurant in the area. Whatever the reason they come, the conversation is about the food," says Antonio Vila. Masu. Vila is the president of Fundación Universo Accessible, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities become main staff members. He's also the driving force behind Universo Santi, a fine-dining restaurant where all 20 employees have some form of disability. "I've always wanted to show what people with disabilities can do with the right training," said Billa. "Those things weren't being realized in the world of haute cuisine. Universo Santi has broken that barrier." The 20 staff members range in age from 22 to 62 and were recruited from an initial list of 1,500. To qualify, applicants must be unemployed and disabled. Alejandro Jimenez, 23, has Down syndrome and is a restaurant chef. “It gave me a chance to be independent and do what I loved as a child,” said Jimenez, who lived with her mother until she was hired. "Working here has changed my life. I can now do many things myself that I used to ask my mother to do. Before, I didn't even know how to take the train by myself. .”
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