Where Is My Coffee? wins state award!

26 August 2022

26 Aug 2022

VMCH’s social enterprise café creating job opportunities for people with disability is a state award winner.

Where Is My Coffee? in Wangaratta placed first in the 2022 Victorian Disability Awards for ‘excellence in employment outcomes’, announced Wednesday 24 August.

The awards focus on recognising and honouring the achievements of individuals and teams that promote the rights and inclusion of people with disability. They are judged by Victoria’s disability community, with recommendations made to the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers for final selection.

Where Is My Coffee? opened its doors in December last year. Since that time it has mentored 20 trainees, with two going on to find paid employment, over a massive 2,688 hours of service.

VMCH General Manager Disability Services, Daniel Carter, said the team was “absolutely honoured” to win the prestigious award.

“I’m so proud of our dedicated team for their hard work over the past nine months, the outcomes we’ve seen for our trainees have been incredible. To witness their growth in confidence and independence is really encouraging, and this award is a reflection of the real and positive difference the café has made to many lives.”

The WIMC team anxiously await the award result.

Bianca Paola was among a group of trainees, staff and friends who gathered at the café yesterday to eagerly await the announcement.

“I felt absolutely happy,” Bianca said. “It took a while to sink in, but we were thrilled! I yelled out, ‘let’s open some champagne’ – and we did! It was great.”

Daniel and Bianca also thanked the local community, who’ve flocked to the café to enjoy its delicious food, knockout coffee and inclusive atmosphere since it opened.

“Without their support, this award would not be possible,” Daniel said. “Congratulations to finalists in all categories, including fellow locals Northeast Health Wangaratta’s Tidy Team.”

Daniel said VMCH was proud to offer meaningful opportunities for the thousands of people with disability across Victoria who are actively seeking to enter the workforce.

There is obviously a huge skills shortage across all sectors at the moment, thanks to the COVID pandemic. Cafés like ours are an important piece of the puzzle to help solve that issue. Here at VMCH our goal is to support 100 people to find and sustain award wage employment by 2025, and we’re well on our way to doing that.”

VMCH – which also runs several local disability programs – will open a second social enterprise café (yet to be named) at its Star of the Sea Aged Care Residence in Torquay later this year.

If you are a Wangaratta business and would like to take on a café trainee in a paid role, please call  0436 521 787 or email: cafewangaratta@vmch.com.au 

To learn more about VMCH’s job and life skills programs, visit: vmch.com.au or call 1300 698 624.

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Acknowledgement of Country

We here at VMCH respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we gather, and we would like to take a moment to honour the fact that we live on the lands of the oldest civilisation in the world. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and wisdom of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.