STREAT - hospitality based social enterprise

STREAT's next Main Course Program is about to kick off! 

When: 27 February 2018 - 27 June 2018
Where: 66 Cromwell St, Collingwood
Cost: The fee will vary according to individual circumstances
Places are limited, so get in quick! Applications close 9 February 2018.
For more details, visit www.streat.com.au/youth-programs
or call Andrea or Craig on 9629 4222.

STREAT is a hospitality-based social enterprise that provides supported vocational training and holistic personal support to marginalised and disadvantaged young people in Melbourne. STREAT exists to make a difference to young people who face a range of barriers and disadvantage. We aim to provide a sense of connection, safety and belonging to our young people.

Our programs are open to marginalised, socially isolated or disadvantaged young people aged 16 to 25 who are in need of a supportive learning and work experience environment to get ready for work or study. We provide a compassionate and constructive social environment with new peers who are also keen to make positive change in their lives. Young people in our programs come from a diverse range of backgrounds and situations and generally face multiple barriers to work/training, including:

• Recent arrival migrants and refugees
• Early school leavers
• Homeless, or at risk of homelessness
• Living in Out of Home Care
• Exiting, or have recently exited remand or have history of legal issues
• Learning difficulties
• LGBTIQ+
• Disability
• Mental health issues
• Past substance abuse issues

We offer young people a range of programs which can be completed individually or as a full pathway to gain more skills and confidence. All of our programs are client-centred, evidence based, integrated, flexible and are designed to wrap around a young person.  

We want our young people to thrive in all parts of their lives. We want them to feel a sense of belonging at STREAT, and know deeply that we’re here to help them achieve a healthy self, healthy job and a healthy home.

• Belong – We want a young person to always feel at home at STREAT.
• Healthy self – We provide wrap-around support including individual case management, linkages to other specialist service providers as needed (drug and alcohol, mental health, housing services), group life skills programs, and creative and social activities. 
• Healthy job – We provide a range hospitality programs including accredited certificate courses, work experience programs, and short courses. We also provide workplace training and mentoring for each young person across STREAT’s inner Melbourne cafes and production kitchen. As a social enterprise, STREAT reinvests 100% of its café profits back into supporting and training youth.
• Healthy home – We work towards our young people having a safe and long-term place to live through partnerships with a wide range of Melbourne housing services.

Programs

Over the last few years we’ve built a full suite of programs which can be done individually or as a full pathway as young people gain more skills and confidence:

• ‘Taster’ – A fun, hands-on three-hour experience tailored for youth organisations or schools with young people who might be interested in STREAT programs. Run on the first Tuesday of each month, this extremely popular group activity can accommodate 8-15 young people at a time.  Tasters are a great introduction to STREAT and provide a 'taste' of some of the different professions available to them in the hospitality industry. The workshops take place in our coffee roastery and production kitchen and the young people make coffee and something delicious to eat.
• ‘Entree’ – For young people wanting to access hospitality focused work experience or to give STREAT a try before committing to a longer program.
• ‘Main Course’ – A 17 week fully supported program including on-the-job training and mentoring, a Life Skills program, creative and social engagement and individual case support (including linkages to specialist service providers), units towards a Cert III in Commercial Cookery.
• ‘STREATs Ahead’ – A program supporting the transition of STREAT graduates into open employment. Our current partners in this program are the Fonda Mexican chain and Epicure.  Soon we hope to offer a fully supported Certificate III program / apprenticeship program, allowing young people to train as fully qualified chefs and bakers. 

A typical week at STREAT in Main Course

In a typical week at STREAT our Main Course trainees will be involved in a group-based life skills program, TAFE and getting their qualifications, work experience in any one of our cafes or production kitchen, group-based creative and social activities, or having individual support sessions with our Youth Program team (which might include working through major issues like housing, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health, legal). All programs are integrated, flexible and ‘wrap’ around a trainee.

Life Skills modules

The group-based life skills program has key modules on emotional management, problem solving, healthy relationships, communication, and conflict management. Working with our Youth Programs Team, trainees also develop their personal goals at the start of each program, and then a self-management plan which we use through-out their transition to open employment.

More information

For more detail, you can contact the Youth Programs team on:

• Phone: (03) 9629 4222
• Email: youthprograms@streat.com.au
• If you want to visit with our team, it's best to make an appointment first.
• If you’d like to apply for one of our courses, visit the "Apply" page (it's in the drop-down menu under "Youth"). 
• Last but not least, join our mailing list (below) to keep up to date on our programs.  Every time we're starting a new Main Course we announce it through our mailing list.

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