Something Beautiful: Supporting adults with disabilities in Stonewall – Winnipeg [Video]

It’s a busy lunch hour at Something Beautiful, a cafe and gift shop in Stonewall.

Gary Lawson makes a fresh pot of coffee. Kyle Soroka washes dishes in the kitchen. Darrell Dempster helps set a table set aside for a reservation.

They’re all clients of Community Living Interlake (CLI), an organization that supports adults living with disabilities. They’re also staff at Something Beautiful, a social enterprise CLI opened in 2016.

“We’re doing everything around here,” said Lawson. “Working in the kitchen part, doing food and cakes and all that stuff.”

CLI offers day programming for adults with disabilities and operates six houses where clients live with support.

“Community Living supports adults living with disabilities to live normal lives in the community, lives like everyone else,” said Executive Director Tracy Fidler. “Coming to work, doing jobs, living daily lives at home… what anybody else would do.”

The Something Beautiful gift shop opened in 2016, and the cafe opened in 2019. The two …