The Raw Carrot, Co-Founder/Co-Director: (left) Rebecca Sherbino and (right) Colleen Graham
For both Colleen Graham and Rebecca Sherbino, The Raw Carrot began as a passion project. Wanting to create a space in their community where people who didn’t quite fit into the traditional work environment could thrive, make an income and meet some people along the way.
“So the reason that we got started with this was because there was a lot of people in our community who were living in poverty, marginalized for various reasons, but lots of that had to do with their disability or mental illness,” said Sherbino.
The co-founders explain that they knew a young girl personally who had just graduated high school. Sherbino describes that the girl was struggling with some known disabilities but had displayed a lot of potential.
“Just coming out of high school is the perfect opportunity to you know, try and move forward and onward to something else. Whether or not that be University or a job.”
Soup selections at The Raw Carrot, Paris // Bailey Sherrah
Sherbino continued to explain, as they got to know this girl, they understood that her family had been living in generational poverty and there were no planned next steps for her out of high school. So both Sherbino and Graham wanted to make a change.
“So became the passion project that we now know as the Raw Carrot.”
We just really wanted to provide some employment for people in our community here in Paris, explained Sherbino. Wanting to sell five thousand dollars worth of soup in their first year, turned into 25-thousand dollars worth.
“People started purchasing lots more soup than we had planned.”
Founded in 2014, The Raw Carrot began inside the Paris Presbyterian Church on Grand River Street North. The company continues to provide jobs for those who receive assistance from the Ontario Disability Support Program but are able and willing to work. Sherbino says The Raw Carrot not only creates meaningful employment but shows people with disabilities their unique abilities.
School to Community Pathways
Wynter Trueman has been teaching in London high schools for nearly two years now, specializing in English and Languages.
Due to Ontario school boards current Octomesters, Trueman has found herself moving classrooms more often that she would like, however; she says her current classroom is designed to maximize student potential.
Photo by NeONBRAND // Unsplash
“I’m currently teaching in a special education classroom and we call that classroom school to community pathways,” the young educator continues.
“The program is designed to help students with disabilities move from school and education into the world of work and self care. The work we do in the classroom really reflects the classrooms title.”
Trueman describes the program as teaching students how to make a smooth transition from the academic structured environment to a more flexible scheduled life that they will be faced with in the working world.
“A huge barrier for our students is the lack of structure when they move out of the academic world. There’s no longer that predictability that brings them comfort because that’s not how the working world is set up.”
When asked if she had heard about the Raw Carrot, Trueman was ecstatic to hear that what she is teaching in the classroom has been adapted by a business with the same mindset (hear more from Trueman below).
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