SHEPHERDS COMMUNITY CAFÉ
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What's new at the Cafe?

Keep up to date with all of the latest news.

april announcement!

3/27/2019

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​Thank you to all of our local first responders, military & Veterans for protecting & saving the lives of those in our community! Shepherds Community Cafe & Community State Bank are teaming up to provide you with free coffee for the entire month of April! This is offered to all firefighters, law enforcement, EMTs, Veterans and current military with valid ID starting April 1st, 2019! Stop by Shepherds Community Cafe in Union Grove, WI this April to get your ☕️!!! Your free coffee will continue to support a great cause!

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The gift of awareness

3/25/2019

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The Gift of Awareness
written by Susan Griffis, Associate Vice President of Marketing, Shepherds College

Nothing galls us more than hearing the words, “Shepherds College is the best kept secret.” Gaaaahhhh!! We’re not keeping our program a secret. Our Marketing team has been working hard for over a decade to spread the word about our groundbreaking program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The problem is, unless a parent knows Shepherds College exists, odds are good they won’t be looking. It was only recently that post-secondary schools for people with intellectual disabilities became an option. Many people assume there is nothing for their student once they age out of high school so they don’t bother seeking out more advanced educational opportunities.

Marketing for the new Shepherds College was a challenge from the beginning. How do you get people to find a small post-secondary school when they’re not actively looking, and you’re operating on a miniscule marketing budget?

When Community State Bank gave Shepherd College the gift of Shepherds Community Café, they didn’t realize they were also giving us:

The Gift of Awareness

Shepherds College may be small, but its impact on the lives of students with intellectual disabilities and their families is immense. Our program changes lives for these people by giving hope, fulfilling dreams and bringing dignity through education, self-advocacy, self-awareness and independence. Parents find security and peace watching their children become confident, capable and empowered.

The Shepherds College program also changes the hearts and minds of people exposed to our students in community. With every exposure, the world can see their abilities and their value to society. Perceptions change, stigmas are slain, and acceptance grows.

When the bank gave Shepherds College the space to run a café, the eyes of a growing community turned to our program. Awareness grew. Thanks to the expertise and partnership of Community State Bank’s marketing team, word of the café and the mission of Shepherds College is continually getting out to more and more people. We have received publicity from several news stations and newspapers resulting in national media attention for both the café and the college.

We pray that this heightened awareness of our café and college will bring new students, additional funding for our vital mission, and a more educated, accepting world for people with intellectual disabilities. Most importantly, we pray that people will see God working in mighty ways in the lives of the people we serve through the love generated in real community.

Read about the Gifts of Experience and Community in the February 2019 blogs.  The Gift of Financial Support coming soon.

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the gift of Community

2/25/2019

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The Gift of Community
written by Susan Griffis, Associate Vice President of Marketing, Shepherds College

Read through the Community State Bank website and you will see statements like “relationship-driven,” “creating a culture that exemplifies positivity,” and “investing our time, talents and resources into building the communities we serve.”

These statements aren’t just empty messages created at a monthly marketing meeting and then forgotten about. They are statements lived out by the bank president and his staff on a daily basis.

Visit the Community State Bank Facebook and Instagram pages and scroll through posts of free community events they’ve hosted, farmers and other business owners they serve, and neighbors with real needs they support. Several of those posts will be about the café they built for Shepherds College, a post-secondary school for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

For the students, Shepherds Community Café was a message saying, “You matter in this community.” For Shepherds College, the café was an awesome blessing that still continues to reveal other important gifts through the bank’s original, generous act. By caring for their neighbors, the bank gave the college:

The Gift of Community

From the grand opening to now, the chairs at Shepherds Community Café are filled with supportive neighbors, local business owners, out of town visitors, media personnel, Community State Bank employees, and Shepherds College parents, students and staff. The students and alumni who work at the café, our baristas, are being exposed to new people and potential new friends every day. These interactions give the students the opportunity to build their communities and support systems. Each relationship developed can be a source of wisdom, spiritual guidance, life experience or assistance as these students learn to live on their own after graduation.

Every contact is also an opportunity for the students to give back – to engage in another’s life – sharing their unique abilities and personalities with the people around them. With each connection made and every relationship built, the students are creating safer and more welcoming communities in which they can live out their dreams of independence.
 
Read about the Gift of Experience in the February 11, 2019 blog.  The Gift of Awareness and the Gift of Financial Support coming in March.

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The Gift of Experience

2/11/2019

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​The Gift of Experience
written by Susan Griffis, Associate Vice President of Marketing, Shepherds College

Russian nesting dolls are fascinating gifts. The main doll is beautifully carved and painted and, in itself, is a wonderful surprise. But then you open the doll to find another, similar to the first in its beauty, but with intricate and important differences. As you open the doll you’ll continue to find another… and another… and another… each unique and each an essential part of the whole gift.

In 2018, Community State Bank gave Shepherds College a gift much like this. They gave the school a café for the Culinary Arts students to run - Shepherds Community Café. 

One of the first things people do after receiving a Russian nesting doll is to remove each doll, put the halves back together, and line them up next to each other to examine the gift in its entirety. After receiving the gift of Shepherds Community Cafe, the staff at Shepherds College did the same.  The second gift was easily revealed:

The Gift of Experience
Shepherds Community Café is staffed by the second- and third-year students and alumni of Shepherds College. These baristas all have intellectual or developmental disabilities so they are supervised by a café manager, one who is experienced in the disability field.

Running the café and serving the customers gives these students valuable, real-life business experience. As they grow in knowledge, the students are gaining confidence in their skills and in their personal interactions.

The students each learn specialized skills in their Culinary Arts program at Shepherds College. They also learn soft skills, such as professional behaviors, dressing for success and conflict resolution. These soft skills are tested and enhanced through working as baristas at the café.

Later this year, the café will offer baked goods made by the Culinary Arts students. The students will be baking cookies, muffins, bars and other delicious treats in the newly licensed production kitchen at Shepherds College. Producing these baked goods to sell in the café will add another level of experience toward their careers in Culinary Arts.
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Thanks to the gift of Shepherds Community Café, the Shepherds College Culinary Arts students are building impressive resumes to assist them on the path toward fulfilling their dreams of independence.
Read about the other generous gifts in upcoming blogs.
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Our Latest Video - Check out the Café!

10/1/2018

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Introducing Shepherds Community Café from Community State Bank on Vimeo.

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Community Open House & Grand Opening!

8/6/2018

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Community State Bank and Shepherds Community Café invite our friends and neighbors to a Community Open House at 1500 Main Street, Union Grove, WI on Saturday, August 11th, 2018 from 9 AM until noon.

The open house will feature tours of Community State Bank’s newly renovated office and Shepherds Community Café. The café will also be providing free beverage samples and bakery while supplies last.

“We’re so excited to show our newly renovated office to the community,” said CSB President and CEO, Scott Huedepohl. “The design reflects everything a community bank stands for...strong communities and building quality relationships.”

Some of the additional features that the office includes are a new drive-thru, employee collaboration areas, an outdoor patio space and two community rooms that are free for local organizations and businesses to use upon request.
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“This design is different than a traditional community bank,” said Huedepohl. “We encourage our neighbors to stop in for our community event and check out everything our new office and café have to offer.”

Community Open House & Grand Opening

Saturday, August 11th, 2018 | 9AM - 12PM
Community State Bank
1500 Main Street
Union Grove, WI 53182
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Shepherds Community Café Now Open!

7/25/2018

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Matthew Gilliland (right) smiles as he shows off one of the café's specialty blended coffee drinks as his co-worker Benjamin Page laughs in the background. (Photo provided by Megan Burke megan.burk@jounaltimes.com.)
Shepherds Community Café officially opened for business on Monday, July 23rd, 2018.

The café is a collaboration between Community State Bank (CSB) and Shepherds College and will provide training, work experience and jobs to local students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

“The café isn’t just about coffee,” said Café Manager, Brooke Clark. “It’s about acceptance, inclusion, utilizing our student’s unique talents and bringing our communities together. Our students are excited for this unique experience and an opportunity to showcase the skills they are learning at school.”

The café will serve a variety of coffees and specialty drinks and feature Stone Creek Coffee (Milwaukee, WI). They'll also feature seasonal specials and delicious baked goods. A detailed menu is available on this site.

The café was part of an extensive renovation of Community State Bank's Union Grove office location (1500 Main Street, Union Grove, WI 53182). The renovation also features a re-designed lobby, a new drive-thru experience, and the addition of a Smart ATM.

​One of the new features of the café and part of the bank renovation was the addition of "Community Rooms". These are informal meeting spaces that are available free to members of the community.  Room reservations can be made through the mysccafe.com website.

“Shepherds Community Café is so much more than your average community coffee shop. We’re actually changing people’s lives and providing an opportunity for them to grow,” said Scott Huedepohl, President and CEO of Community State Bank. “We’re beyond grateful to work so closely with Shepherds College and can’t wait to share this with our community.”

Detailed information regarding contact and hours of operation can be found below.

Read the featured story in the Racine Journal Times.
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Shepherds community café supporting students with intellectual disabilities one cup at a time

4/18/2018

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Imagine that a cup of coffee could support a local college and provide work experience for students with intellectual disabilities. Now imagine that a café embracing this vision was coming to a community bank in Union Grove, Wisconsin. It’s a vision that Community State Bank (CSB) President and CEO, Scott Huedepohl presented to Shepherds College in 2017 and now it’s becoming the reality known as Shepherds Community Café. 

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As a community bank, this is what we’re about every day,” said Huedepohl. “We build the communities that we serve. So when this idea originally crossed my mind, I didn’t even hesitate. I knew this was something that our bank, Shepherds College and our communities could really get behind and support.” 

Shepherds College, also located in Union Grove, provides a three year post-secondary education program for students from all over the world with intellectual disabilities. One of the three programs that Shepherds College provides for their students is a culinary arts program. 

“The café will provide our culinary students with significant experience within the context of a true business setting,” said Shepherds College Executive Director, Tracy Terrill. “This will enhance the overall culinary training program and introduce more people to the work and mission of Shepherds College.” 

The café will be staffed by Shepherds College students and all proceeds will directly benefit the college. The college’s culinary staff is currently working with Stone Creek Coffee in Milwaukee to develop a business and training plan for the students as well as a beverage menu for the upcoming café. 

“Stone Creek Coffee was founded with the principle that we have a social obligation to the communities around us,” said Stone Creek Director of Partnerships, Marshall Welch. “The Shepherds Community Café project is a great embodiment of our social obligation and we couldn’t have been more excited for the opportunity to use our love for coffee as a conduit to create social and educational outlets for the students at Shepherds College.” 

Shepherds Community Café will be located inside of Community State Bank’s Main Office at 1500 Main Street in Union Grove. The café, in addition to the entire bank, is currently in the process of being renovated and is set to host a grand opening this spring. 

Among the many new additions to the bank office, CSB also designed two community rooms that will be directly connected to the café. The rooms were created to provide local businesses and service organizations with a space to network, meet and team build free of charge. Both rooms will be available by reservation and will have access to café services. 

“Shepherds Community Café is going to be huge for our community and the surrounding communities in Southeastern Wisconsin,” said Huedepohl. “This is an opportunity to make our morning coffee routine into a movement that will make a difference in the lives of these students forever.” 

Any media related questions or requests can be directed to Community State Bank’s Communication Coordinator, Ellie Heigl: eheigl@communitystatebank.net or (262) 878-3763. 

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Copyright© 2018 Shepherds Community Café

Hours

M-F: 8am - 3pm
Saturday: 9am - 12pm
Shepherds Community Café is located in the lobby of Community State Bank's Union Grove office location. The café's hours are subject to the banks operating hours.
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Telephone

(262) 878-9894
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Email

info@mysccafe.com
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