About Professor Brawn
Professor Brawn Café is a Social Enterprise which provides job and social integration opportunities to people with special needs and the disadvantaged in society. Its mission is to provide affordable good food by an inclusive quality workforce comprising people of different abilities, ages and socio-economic background.
Professor Brawn started operations on 15 October 2009. The founders are parents and friends who want to make a difference to the special needs community and others who need a leg up in society. Their dream is to provide opportunities for jobs, showcase of special talents and to raise awareness and contributions by supporters of the cause.
After being in operations for almost 9 years, in a long-term strategic move, the owners decided to donate the Professor Brawn brand and know-how to the charity Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) or ARC(S) in mid-2018. The new social enterprise under ARC(S) will have the exciting mandate to increase its presence more aggressively, and to create more jobs & inclusion opportunities with like-minded community partners across Singapore.
ARC(S) re-opened Professor Brawn Café on 2 July 2018 at Raffles Institution (RI) to serve as a testbed for a scalable model, tapping on ARC(S)'s job coaching expertise and network, to train and place many more adults with special needs. The RI outlet will have a mix of differently-abled staff, a refreshed menu and a new dining experience.
On 28 July 2019, Professor Brawn Café opened its public outlet at Pathlight Campus 1. More than a café, the worksite is a realisation of the vision for an inclusive worksite and employment model. It provides Pathlight students with opportunities to build their work readiness skills and have authentic training opportunities. This outlet also includes The Art Faculty products, which showcases the works of Pathlight School's Artist Development Programme artists.
Professor Brawn Bistro, our second and largest public outlet, opened on 22 January 2020 at the Enabling Village, expanding the vision of creating an inclusive worksite and providing employment for persons with various special needs. With support from our job coaches from ARC(S)’s Employability and Employment Centre (E2C), Professor Brawn outlets now train and employ autistic, deaf and intellectually differently-abled adults. They make up more than 50% of the inclusive team.
Professor Brawn runs an authentic sustainable business to maximise the potential of our special needs staff. They can happily earn their own keep while serving in a space with colleagues and customers who accept them.
