{"id":176695,"date":"2017-12-24T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=176695"},"modified":"2017-12-23T20:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T01:10:03","slug":"cnns-hero-year-children-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/cnns-hero-year-children-down-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN’s Hero of the Year is an advocate for people with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Amy Wright’s two youngest children — Beau, 13, and Bitty, 8 — who both have Down syndrome were born, she became an advocate, like many parents of special-needs children. But when Wright and her husband Ben realized that 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed, they decided to take action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After her husband opened an investment firm and hired nine associates with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the couple knew they wanted to do more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese associates weren\u2019t getting a lot of face-to-face time with clients, and the whole idea here was to bring people together,\u201d said Wright. \u201cAnd that planted the idea for the coffee shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bitty and Beau’s<\/a> was born, a coffee shop staffed by people with disabilities that grew from a 500-square-foot shop to a 5,000-square-foot space in just six months. The employees have disabilities such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism.<\/p>\n

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