An Oakville cafe and market is creating job opportunities for people with disabilities after one local mother saw her son struggle to find meaningful work despite having the skills and desire to do it.
BU Cafe & Market opened in January at 77 Lakeshore Rd. W. is co-owned by Karen Drexler and her son, Jacob Stretton, who has Down syndrome.
The cafe was created with a simple goal: to give people with disabilities a real place to work, learn, build confidence, and be part of the community.
A cafe built from a need for opportunity
For Drexler, the idea came from watching Stretton try to find work after school.
“It was back when my son was just turning 18, and in the disability world, when they turn 18, it goes into a whole new realm of services and resources and what’s available to him,” Drexler told Now Toronto.
“The one thing he always wanted was a job like his sister’s. He loves being a barista. He loves coffee shops, and he’s always said he wanted to be a barista.”
Stretton attended Mohawk College’s Community Integration through Cooperative Education program, also known as CICE. The college describes the program as one that gives students with intellectual disabilities and significant learning challenges the chance to pursue post-secondary education, prepare for entry-level work, and build independence and self-advocacy skills.
But after graduating, Drexler says Stretton applied to “many, many jobs” and was not getting any calls back.
“That was the hardest part, because I know he was trying so hard,” she said. “And he also has the skills. He really has the skills. If he has good training and he’s shown what to do, he’s able to do it. So just the fact that nobody was giving him that opportunity, it was heartbreaking.”
That experience became the beginning of BU Cafe & Market.
Drexler said she first started exploring the idea of opening a space around 2019 and 2020. She was looking into resources and working with a small business centre when the COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold.
Creating support that leads to independence
During that time, Stretton discovered candle-making. In 2021, he launched BU Candles, a hand-crafted soy candle business that has since sold online across Canada, the U.S. and other parts of the world like Australia, according to Drexler.
The business is built around the phrase “Be You,” with a mission that goes beyond candles by promoting inclusive employment and meaningful opportunities for people of all abilities. The candle business gave Stretton a way to create, sell and connect with customers, but Drexler said she knew he still wanted something more social.
“He’s very social and he loves interacting with people and having that community piece, so I knew we had to do a little bit more than just the candles,” she said.
The name BU also has a personal meaning for both mother and son.
Drexler says Stretton loves movies, characters and quoting lines in social situations. Sometimes, she says, he will use lines from a character that actually fit the moment.
“I’m always telling him, ‘Just be yourself. Be yourself. You don’t have to be [a character], just yourself,’” she said.
That message eventually became part of the candle brand and later the cafe.
“We kind of incorporated that concept into the candles, so there’s sayings on his candles that just encourage people to celebrate who they are,” Drexler said. “You are okay with who you are. Just be yourself. You don’t need to be anybody else.”
At BU Cafe & Market, that message shows up in more than the name. The cafe serves coffee drinks, baked goods, sandwiches, ice cream and specialty drinks, including matcha, strawberry matcha and an iced mango matcha planned as a summer drink.
Drexler says the market side of the business features products from entrepreneurs with disabilities, as well as people who support the disability community.
That includes BU Candles, along with T-shirts, sweatshirts, books, lavender sachets, bookmarks, cards and artwork.
A community space centred on inclusion
The idea is to create a space where inclusion is not treated as a special event, but part of the everyday workday.
Drexler says the goal is to have people with disabilities working alongside typically developing people, with everyone contributing to the same shared space.
For Drexler, inclusive employment starts with understanding how each person learns.
When someone joins the cafe, she says the team meets with them to understand their learning style, what support they need and what modifications might help them succeed. From there, staff go through training so they can build the skills and confidence needed for the job.
That kind of support, Drexler says, is not about limiting someone. It is about setting them up to succeed.
The need for more accessible and inclusive workplaces remains a major issue in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada, nearly three in five people with disabilities or long-term conditions experienced a labour-market-related barrier to accessibility, including barriers at work, during hiring, or barriers that discouraged or prevented them from working.
Statistics Canada also reported that in 2024, the employment rate for persons with disabilities was 46.4 per cent, compared to 66.2 per cent for people without disabilities.
Drexler says part of the issue is stigma and a lack of understanding.
“I think employers just don’t understand or realize the capabilities people have,” she said. “I think you hear the word disability and people just think you don’t have the skills, or it’d be a lot of work for them, or they don’t know how to incorporate someone who has some differences. I think it’s more just that kind of fear of the unknown.”
Since opening, Drexler says she has already seen growth in Stretton and the other team members, especially when it comes to confidence.
She says the cafe has also become a place where customers are building relationships with the staff.
“We have a lot of repeat customers who are coming in to see them,” Drexler said. “Jacob went on holidays for just over a week, and I can’t tell you how many messages and letters that people were writing, saying, ‘I came in to see you, and you weren’t here.’”
The wider Oakville community has also embraced the cafe, and with more publicity, BU Cafe & Market now sees long lineups and sells out of items.
“It’s been amazing. It’s been so good,” she said. “People are really receptive and welcoming and supportive.”
That support matters to Drexler because BU Cafe & Market is not only about Stretton’s dream of becoming a barista. It is also about showing what is possible when businesses make space for people who are often overlooked.
To her, the cafe is proof that people with disabilities are capable of working, learning and contributing when they are given the right support.
“Just because you have a disability does not mean you’re not capable of working,” Drexler said. “I love that people are coming in and just seeing that they can do the job just like anybody else.”
