Brandon enjoys a taste of working in hospitality in Greenacres' new pathway program

Greenacres Disability Services has held the first of what will become regular multicultural cooking classes to help clients who are interested in working in the hospitality industry.

The organisation already operates three fully functional “Brewing Up a Storm” cafes, a catering kitchen and onsite barista and cooking training facilities at its North Wollongong head office.

Klarissa Vasquez from Klaire’s Kitchen ran the first class, teaching participants to make spring rolls and dumplings.

Student Brandon Da Silva was keen to try his hand.

“I’m excited to learn new skills, have new experiences, and also learn how to cook in a professional setting,” he said.

The next class will be held in February.

Participants gain hands-on experience and confidence in a supported environment and Greenacres chief commercial officer Audra Tuckwood said the new Hospitality Pathways Program would help those clients who expressed an interest in working in open employment.

The program is open to NDIS participants who are over 14 years and 9 months old.

“Traditionally, we weren’t asking participants if they had a goal to work in open employment,” Audra said.

“Some of them have tried it in the past and they’ve not liked it. It hasn’t been an inclusive environment, or they’ve had a bad experience, haven’t been able to do all the tasks the employer wanted and so they’ve ended up coming back to supported employment where their safety net is and the supervisor is working alongside them all the time.

“But what we’re trying to do now is we’re asking, well, who does want to work in hospitality?

“We had a government grant that enabled us to employ John (program coordinator John Bowker) to bridge this gap between us in supported employment and the open employers.

“This provides an opportunity for us to engage with external participants, as well as our ones who are currently supported employees, and talk to them about how we can help them to get towards open employment, if that is their goal.

“It’s not about us forcing anybody to go into open employment if they really don’t want to, because a lot of them do feel quite anxious about it, but it’s giving them that opportunity with support.”

Audra said Greenwares was looking to find mentors from employers in the area – restaurants, cafes, bars – who are prepared to work with Greenacres to provide employment.

“John’s working to build those relationships, to find employers who want to be inclusive and who want to employ someone with a disability and want to partner with Greenacres for the long term.

“John would go with the participant to introduce them to an employer, visit their premises and break down some of those barriers and anxiety that is sometimes there.

“There’s no pressure at that stage that they have to be applying for a job; it’s just getting to know each other.

“Then if the participant says to us I’d love to work in this kitchen or that cafe, then it’s about us going in there to provide some support in the new workplace to both the employer and to our person who’s wanting that opportunity.

“It doesn’t have to be all or nothing – it can be a mixture of some open employment, maybe just one shift a week to begin with, as well as staying working with Greenacres in our cafes or catering. So that way, they still get the best of both worlds.”

Audra said Greenacres was able to help participants overcome some of the barriers to people with a disability finding employment.

“A big barrier to open employment is often getting there, whereas Greenacres runs a transport service where we go and pick them up from their home, bring them to work and take them home again,” she said.

“Often it’s their anxiety and that feeling that they don’t know what this looks like. That’s what we’re trying to break down, to say to them ‘Well, it won’t be unknown if you’ve met the employer, had a look at the place and maybe done a trial shift’, things like that.

“Recently, we had a guy who did some work experience and some trial shifts at McDonald’s and he’s now got a job there.

“This is just the very, very beginning, but it’s about engaging with communities, letting them know that we now have this opportunity to develop into open employment and we can’t just do that with all the people that we have now at Greenacres.”

Participants and employers wanting more information can contact Greenacres.