Training Cafe Martin

If you are in the Karlin area of Prague then between the “Karlinske namesti” and “Krizikova” tram stops you’ll find Cafe Martin which only opens Monday to Friday. It looks like a regular cafe with comfy seats, selection of teas and coffees, cake stand etc. But then you’ll realise why this is a very special cafe. You are now entering an environment created by the Martin Centre so if you buy something here it’s worth knowing what you will be supporting.

entry door to cafe martin in prague 8th district — Cafe Martin in Karlin

You’ll notice in the title of the post I wrote “Training”. Cafe Martin is part of a social project that helps people with mental, psychiatric, physical or sensory challenges to get into employment by offering vocational training to serve as waiters and waitresses. Specifically in Cafe Martin there are different levels of mental capacity. On one hand it may be as simple as looking at a paper menu and pointing to what you want. Other people that serve here can speak but have trouble understanding speech so in this case you order by using a pen on a plastic coated menu to indicate what you want. You pay at the bar where one of the professional members of staff takes payment.

The Martin Centre

The Martin Centre is a social organisation registered as an o.p.s. What that means is it is a supported foundation which usually has an ethos. My kids went to school at an o.p.s because the school’s ethos was to provide additional support for children with physical or learning difficulties. My kids were fine but we believed that exposure to people considered “not normal” was a valuable part of their education and upbringing. The Martin Centre ethos is generally the support of those “challenged” children after they turn 16 years old and until they are 64 years old.

Blackboard showing opening times of prague cafe martin — Cafe Martin opens 0830-2000 Monday to Friday

Although Cafe Martin is set up to provide vocational training in the F&B environment, the Martin Centre runs education courses for the arts, creative projects and horticultural projects. It also operates a shop in the Zizkov location where people get vocational training in different areas. Their aim is also to provide social rehabilitation for people that have become isolated from society due to problems accessing employment and general activities that we take for granted. They help people from Prague and Central Bohemia. So you are supporting a good cause.

Cafe Martin
Sokolovská 75/29
Mon-Fri 0830-2000
Webpage