Eat & Drink
SERVING happiness
By Andrea Rowe Photos Yanni
A
s its name suggests, HappinessFirst Café is a place of joy. Coffees and tasty treats are served with grins and genuine hospitality, by staff proud of jobs which provide them self-fulfilment and connection. This is not just any café and retail store on the streets of Rosebud – it’s a workplace that removes labels and empowers staff to move beyond their disability and into meaningful employment. The supported employment model helps enhance skills, selfconfidence, self-worth, and happiness for life. The moment you sit yourself down as a patron in this innovative cafe, you are served a slice of inclusivity. The HappinessFirst Coffee, Pantry and Gift Shop is run by a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) approved organisation, HappinessFirst. Its CEO, Rose Farfalla, had a vision for inclusive opportunity that ran deep and knew no limitations.
E ssence
32 | PENINSULA
April 2022
“This is beyond making coffee and serving sandwiches; it’s a café that is part of our community. Not a disability café, because frankly the labels aren’t necessary, but a place to gather, socialise, grow skills, feel valued and reframe how our working society can look,” says Rose. A disability and labour force report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last year found 53.4 per cent of people with disability were employed, compared with 84.1 per cent of people without disability. Australians with disabilities are greatly underrepresented in the work force. It was while developing personal work goals for people with disabilities, that the ever-energetic Rose hatched a plan. “The café is in direct response to our participants wanting to feel a part of the community, and deserving to have jobs where they’re valued, challenged, and supported. It’s become more complex for employers to hire people with a disability, and COVID further impacted opportunities. This trend created roadblocks, so it was time to be a part of the solution.”