Dialogue Express Café in Stratford said it is delivering British Sign Language (BSL) classes and hosting events.
The café, located at the Carpenters Estate in Gibbins Road, said it will adopt an educational function for the local community and allow businesses to hire the space as a venue.
This will run in addition to its regular café service, which began in July 2023 and is staffed by baristas who are deaf or have other hearing loss.
The café encourages visitors to use BSL for their orders.
Dialogue Hub chief executive Hakan Elbir said: “In addition to our regular operations, providing tea, coffee and food, we will reposition as a community hub focusing on families and young people.
“With the help of an event co-ordinator, we will be organising an event calendar, including cooking classes, movie nights, DJ events, and yoga sessions.”
The decision was taken partly due to financial pressures faced by the café, which Hakan believes is due its location.
He said: “It’s not on the high street so we have some difficulties in terms of footfall.
“The main issue is financial viability.”
But he remains optimistic and said the café is well-received by both the local community in Stratford and the deaf community.
A jazz event held at the café in September saw 300 visitors across the venue’s indoor and outdoor garden space.
Hakan said: “Visitors are happy to start learning BSL, and ordering your coffee at our café is the first step.
“Dialogue Express is a very safe space, and people need that in Stratford.
“This is somewhere they can bring their families, their kids, where they can come and spend time with their friends.
“Instead of going to Westfield, for instance, people prefer to come to us.”
The expansion of the venue into a ‘community hub’ will follow in the footsteps of Dialogue’s other branch, located at the Royal Docks Centre for Sustainability (RDCS) in University of East London Docklands Campus.
Dialogue hires nine staff who are deaf or have a hearing impairment across its two branches.
Hakan stressed that empowering the deaf and hard-of-hearing community will remain the central mission of Dialogue Express.
“My target is to create job opportunities for deaf people because millions of people in the UK experience hearing loss and their employment rates are statistically much lower.
“This shows inequality – we are trying to become a role model for local businesses, so they employ deaf and hard-of-hearing people too.”
“My second motivation is to create empathy and awareness among hearing people like us.
“We are one of the only social enterprises championing BSL, despite it being an official language in the UK.
“We want to encourage people to learn BSL because it is a fun activity – that is why we have started teaching sign language taster sessions.”
This year, Dialogue will also be hosting workshops in schools to teach children BSL.
