Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I stand to recognise Cafe Y, located in Menai in the electorate of Hughes. I had the pleasure of visiting Cafe Y during the election campaign and meeting with Karen Sambaras, the manager, and Natasha Ransford, the front-of-house manager.

Established in May 2014, the objective of this social enterprise initiative, which is run by Project Youth is to empower young people by providing them with access to education, training and employment. Project Youth also works to house approximately 70 of the shire's homeless youth every night. The education and training allows our youth to develop their own future and to thrive. Over the course of the last three years, Cafe Y has supported over 180 young people by providing them with the opportunity to do work placement and gain experience in the hospitality industry. This has lifted them out of homelessness, family hardship, mental health issues and substance abuse. This initiative gives these youth a chance to learn expectations within the workplace and obtain the knowledge and skills required to take them into future employment.

I particularly give a shout-out though to Tash, who started with Project Youth as a young person six years ago while living in Project Youth housing. She was able to complete her HSC and went on to work at Shangri-La Sydney for a period of time. Tash is now running the Cafe Y front of house and supporting other young people who are doing their own work placement.

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