Working at Village Baxter’s on-site café has brought happiness to Wallara client CJ Berechree.
There’s a growing appetite within the Mornington Peninsula’s hospitality industry to employ people with disability off the back of pandemic-driven workforce challenges.
That’s according to Tourism Accommodation Australia (Victoria) CEO Dougal Hollis, who said using this untapped workforce to fill gaps during Covid had set a precedent for the industry. “It makes sense that a hotel’s workforce is as diverse as the community that it serves,” Mr Hollis said. “There are numerous examples of people with a disability working in hotels and enhancing hospitality experiences for guests. These contributions are highly valued and definitely something operators are keen to encourage more of.”
Disability supported employment service Wallara, whose cafe at Sages Cottage Farm in Baxter is run by people with disabilities, has seen a real demand for social enterprises within the hospitality industry as restaurants, cafes and hotels look to this untapped workforce for employees. “The pandemic resulted in a real boom in demand for these types of employment placements for people with disability as employers look more broadly to solve their labour shortages,” Wallara CEO Phil Hayes-Brown said. “We are seeing this in our own services as well as we expand with new cafes in Frankston, Keysborough, Dandenong and Seaford. Village Baxter, a retirement village with 700 residents, has also just appointed us to run their on-site café. We are also currently in talks with Frankston RSL, who are keen to take on some of our supported employees, providing even more employment opportunities for this more than capable cohort.
“People with additional needs, predominantly intellectual disabilities, often struggle to find suitable employment with the ongoing supports they require, so it is critical for businesses to partner with the right social enterprises to ensure these positions can be retained.”
Wallara client Caleb (CJ) Berechree said he loved working at Village Baxter because of the interactions with customers and the boost it gave his confidence. “My favourite thing would be to learn how the chefs do it, because I want to be a chef,” CJ said. “I love it for the atmosphere, and I love it because of the customers. I can express myself more, and it is helping me to grow my confidence.”
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