Medianet has recently reported that a new café, with a social purpose was launched in East Melbourne to provide more than just the regular cups of coffee to the inhabitants. Melbourne based not for profit organisation STREAT has unveiled its latest social enterprise business model that will offer employment and training to disadvantaged youth as well as serving food and beverages to customers.
STREAT’s newest social enterprise of the café is nestled in the hub of East Melbourne, Victoria. Since establishing in 2009, STREAT has had a clear vision to engage with other initiatives for youth homelessness and youth disadvantage; through hospitality training and employment. This latest café follows that tradition because it provides vocational experience and skill building opportunities to youths.
Rebecca Scott, who is the CEO and co-founder of STREAT café said some words about the decided new place. ‘East Melbourne is a very active community, and we are excited to spread our mission in such a place,’ she said. The big idea that we promote this café is not just because we provide excellent coffee, but much more as to build opportunities for those youth who have a lot of difficulties in their lives.
STREAT café serves locally sourced, ethical food and drinks, including fair-trade coffee roasted in STREAT café’s own roastery. The menu includes breakfast and lunch meals, hot meals, drinks, and other baked foods and pastries. The organization boasts that it has low waste and uses environmentally friendly packaging.
Local people have shown a great deal of positive reception towards the new place. Below are the endpoints gathered from interviews collected from first-time visitors to the café, one of whom was Sarah Thompson, a resident of East Melbourne. For sure, it was great to know that there is a business here that is able to provide nourishing food as well as contribute to charitable organizations,” she said. “It must be said that this coffee will become my daily brew.”
In relation to its interior design, the café embodies STREAT’s philosophy with upcycled furniture and artwork made by young people in the program. The interior space of the store should be friendly and open to people so that the firm can foster patronage among the community and its employees feel at home.
As per the operational model of STREAT, the organization has had success in other parts of Melbourne, it has developed and trained, Not for Profit organizations to support more than 3000 youths since its inception. A number of the participants of the STREAT programs have within a short span of time acquired meaningful full employment in the hospitality subsector or continued with their studies.
Training in the East Melbourne café will consist of barista training, food handling, and good etiquette. It will involve people who will be paired with experienced professional trainers who will be with the participants throughout the process.
The local businesses have also come out in support of this initiative to increase the number of floors in buildings. Many of the East Melbourne based companies have shown interest in coming on board with the objective of offering work placement opportunities and job offers to the students that will be graduating from STREAT.
At this time, the café’s opening is timely, especially because youth employment has remained high in Victoria. Using fresh data from the main source the Australian bureau of Statistics, it will be seen that youth unemployment rate in the state continues to be higher than the national youth unemployment rate. This type of experience raises a problem for those who aren’t so privileged, which is where practical projects, like the café run by STREAT, come in.
Melbourne City Council has expressed its approval with the initiative, as a representative of the council said, “We are always glad to see any new companies that are willing to be productive members of our society. “Everything about a new café that opened in STREAT reminds us why this organization is geared towards removing the youth from social isolation and empower them.
In the coming years, as the café finds its footing in the new location in East Melbourne, STREAT will have an even broader vision ahead. The organization wants to engage with local schools and community groups to increase understanding of youth homelessness and vulnerability as well as increase youth participation in those services if required.
Currently, the café operates from Monday to Sunday with a serving of breakfast and lunch in the morning and evening respectively. We are making sure every dollar generated through the café directly funds the rest of STREAT’s youth programs to ensure that change in young people’s lives doesn’t happen without it.
Thus, while East Melbourne gets ready to welcome this newly conceived, socially minded restaurant STREAT’s new venture is already doing more than just serving food. This café plans to bring quality food and non-food products with an addition of social responsibility to provide hopes of a better future for disadvantaged youths in Melbourne.
