Not Your Average Joe is a nonprofit coffee company located in Oklahoma. Founded by Tim Herbel on Jan. 1, 2019, NYAJ seeks to employ people with intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities. While the company started small, it has expanded quickly in recent years, benefitting many employees with disabilities and their families along the way.

“We got permission to take over an existing coffee shop in Midtown Oklahoma City, and it just came together,” Herbel said. “We put together a nationwide board several months later, [and] we hired Danielle Robinson, our first hire with intellectual disabilities.”

NYAJ seeks to break barriers for those with disabilities, starting by providing them with many benefits, such as a job, and providing them with a sense of purpose. This idea has grown significantly, providing that the company can expand and reach more people across Oklahoma. The company is also hoping to expand across the United States in the future as well.

“The brutal reality is that 77.5% of those with special needs, [including] intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities, are either unemployed or underemployed at their high school,” Herbel said. “So we do give them meaningful employment, social engagement [and] continued education, and here we are five years later, 150 super-powered friends and counting.”

Not only does NYAJ provide job opportunities for teenagers and adults with disabilities, but also provides hope for their families. Adults with disabilities are more likely to experience discrimination in the workplace, causing them to not feel comfortable in certain environments, but NYAJ is determined to change that. 

“NYAJ gives us a place where we can walk in and just be a family,” Kelli Bruemmer, a board member of NYAJ and parent said. “Normally, we walk into places and immediately have to look for the people who may have an issue with [our daughter’s] behavior, stims, singing or tics, but at NYAJ, we can just be her mom and dad.”

Herbel, Bruemmer and other board members of NYAJ have hopes to expand internally as well as adding new locations. Beginning with growth inside of their stores may help strengthen and prepare the coffee company for rapid expansion in the future.

“[We want] to launch a new concept called ABEs, Abilities Beyond Expectations, [partnered] with [our] friends with special needs to work beyond the three to four hour shifts,” Herbel said. “We’re also wanting to lean in a little more to corporate training, educational training and providing other opportunities for our friends to be able to use their gifts outside of food service. We also would like to [provide] more manufacturing jobs, whether that is in jam production or coffee production.” 

As for launching new locations, NYAJ has big hopes to grow quickly and raise awareness across the state, if not the country. Providing jobs and the best life possible anywhere they can for a community of people with disabilities is the company’s ultimate goal.

“We have committed to bringing stores to Edmond and to Moore,” Herbel said. “I would like for ABEs to be in Disney Springs in five years. I would like to be in five, if not 10, states in five years. I would like us to have a whole educational wing at Not Your Average Joe, creating curriculum, maybe even videos, and really expanding what’s possible . . . we think that by getting [our jams and coffees] on store shelves across America that could help us as well, providing more meaningful jobs.”

Creating something like never before, Herbel has brought together a common love of caffeine and a desire to make an impact on the lives of those often overlooked by society. Although nonprofits seek to make a change, Not Your Average Joe has already helped so many in the disabled community and their families, redefining their abilities and providing them with a passion and purpose in life, all while raising awareness for those with disabilities.

Contact Esther Wood at [email protected]