Three minutes
The social entrepreneur explains how she is brewing up change – and helping adults with learning disabilities gain employment – at the Fair Shot café.
Where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in London to Italian parents in a tight-knit Italian community. Though many of the friends I grew up with have moved back to Italy, whenever we see each other, that bond remains.
What did you want to be as a child and what are you now?
I went through a lot of phases, but mainly a dolphin trainer or a vet, a human rights lawyer or a social worker. Now, I am the founder and CEO of Fair Shot, a registered charity and unique social enterprise cafe in London’s Covent Garden. A dream of mine ever since I was 13 years old, Fair Shot is my response to the staggeringly high unemployment rate among adults with learning disabilities in the UK. Via our year-long training programme and follow-on employment programme, we provide a secure pathway into paid, sustainable employment for young adults with learning disabilities.
What is one thing the world needs to know about you?
My aim is to create a society where adults with learning disabilities have an equal and fair chance of obtaining and maintaining employment.
What’s your favourite way to spend a Sunday morning?
I grew up in a community with many children my age with learning disabilities. It became my absolute goal to create a tangible, realistic solution to the fact that people with learning disabilities are not fully welcomed into our society. I started my Fair Shot journey at the age of 21 when I left a job in NGOs, and after six years working in hospitality, creating a business plan in my spare time and fundraising the initial £350k needed for launch, we finally opened the doors to our very first cafe in Mayfair
in 2021.
My deep passion to level the playing field for people with learning disabilities has led me to where I am today. I am so proud to have created a community where customers, staff and trainees feel like they belong.
If you couldn’t be yourself, who would you be?
I don’t think I would want to be anyone else – I have worked too hard on myself!
My aim is to create a society where adults with learning disabilities have an equal and fair chance of obtaining and maintaining employment.
What is the one thing every person should be doing to help the planet?
Educate yourself about something, especially around the opposite of your point of view, before you form an opinion. If people were a little bit more open-minded, led with kindness (not judgment) and gave people the benefit of the doubt, then we could break the cycle of mistrust.
What is the most important work the RSA could be doing right now to create change?
Hire a Fair Shot graduate :).
Learn more about the Fair Shot cafe – and plan your visit!
This feature first appeared in RSA Journal Issue 1 2025.
