In late September, Flourish Café, established by Project Employ to provide job training for disabled young people, moved out of Como Street in Takapuna. In early October, staff and trainees moved into a specially revamped building at 5 Anzac Street. Christine Young looks at what prompted the move, and how it became possible.
Since 2022, Flourish Café has supported young people with training designed to promote their transition into the workforce. Its carefully-designed programme provides young people with nine months hands-on training, with the ultimate goal being to transfer these skills into future jobs.
“As the café and our training programme grew, so did the demand for what we were offering,” says Project Employ’s operations manager Hannah Sykes. “Our original space has served us incredibly well, but we needed more room for our trainees to learn, more capacity to welcome customers, and a space that could better support the way a training café needs to operate.”
Enter Brendon Thomas, who has long been concerned to improve the lot of neuro-diverse and disabled youth. “Our family has a philosophy of ‘giving back’ and our son Josh was born in 2000 with disabilities,” he explains. “We have first-hand experience of the challenges facing neuro-diverse young people and their families.”
Brendon’s family established the Made with Aroha Foundation, with the mission to improve the lives and wellbeing of intellectually and physically disabled young adults through work opportunities. His support for Flourish Café sits alongside support for other initiatives supporting disabled young people, and now, he has been key in providing Flourish Café with new purpose-built premises.
“We had been actively looking for opportunities to create a social enterprise and create jobs,” Brendon explains, “and when 5 Anzac St Takapuna came on the market, we saw the potential to use this as base to develop work opportunities for young people with intellectual disabilities.
“We had been watching Flourish start up and evolve – we were early financial sponsors helping Sarah [Dann-Hoare, founder, director and CEO of Project Employ] and the team get it going – and we really loved what they were doing. Real-life training in an operational café, in the community. This resonated with our own vision and mission.”
The Made with Aroha Foundation purchased an outdated 1960s-era building on Takapuna’s busy Anzac Street. For the last few months Brendon has been actively involved in the alterations to the building, and the fitout of the new Flourish Café premises and of other spaces that will provide not just training but employment opportunities for young people: a rooftop garden to supply the café, offices and a flexible meeting space, a multi-purpose workshop, and a large media studio to encourage the creation of digital assets. In the past, he notes, supporting people with disabilities has often focused on manual work. But young people needing support today are digital natives. He envisages that some of them will find purpose and employment in creating digital content such as (but not limited to) video CVs.
Brendon’s enthusiasm and commitment are evident as he engages in the details of the fitout of the nearly-completed premises with Hannah and Sarah. Three weeks prior to moving in, Sarah and Hannah are equally enthusiastic – and appreciative of what Brendon has done for them. “Brendon has completely fitted out the new location for us,” says Hannah. “The space will allow us to provide more training opportunities, give our trainees greater exposure to a busy commercial café environment and support them to develop a broader range of skills. It also gives our team the operational space they need to deliver a high-quality customer experience while maintaining the strong focus on training that sits at the heart of Flourish.
“Most importantly, the move allows us to think beyond where we are today. We have had to turn people away simply because we have had limited capacity. Having the new café creates an opportunity to reach more young people and provide more pathways into employment.
“The move is a reflection of how far Flourish has come. We aren't moving because the original café didn't work – we're moving because it did,” she emphasises. “The success of the original model showed us what was possible, and the new space gives us the opportunity to build on that success.
“The move to Anzac Street is an incredibly exciting next step for Flourish. We can take everything we have learnt from our original café and build on it in a space that is bigger, purpose-built and designed with both hospitality and training in mind. We know there are young people who would benefit from the programme, but our current capacity has limited the number of people we can take on. The new café gives us the opportunity to change that.
“It will also create a stronger learning environment for our trainees. Working in a larger, purpose-built café will allow them to experience the pace and expectations of a busy commercial environment while still having the support and structure that makes Flourish different.
“For our customers, we hope the new space feels welcoming, vibrant and connected to the community. We want Anzac Street to become a place where people come not only for great coffee and food, but also because they understand that every visit is helping create meaningful employment pathways for young people.
“Flourish has grown significantly since we opened, and Anzac Street allows the café and the training programme to grow alongside each other. It feels like a natural progression for Flourish — taking a model that has already made a real difference and creating the space and opportunity to make an even greater impact.”
Brendon agrees. “We saw Flourish partner with Air New Zealand and adapt the concept for them, and we could see some generous employers were opening their minds and doors to taking on some of the graduates as they completed their time at Flourish. We shared a common goal with Project Employ and we could both see that the current café site had its limitations in terms of their exposure, foot traffic and ability to expand their programme, and that a larger, busier more customised site would assist them greatly.
“Incorporating Flourish into the Anzac St site perfectly complemented our wider strategy and by anchoring the site with a café it will be an excellent interface with the public, drawing people to the site and interacting with neuro-diverse young adults enjoying their work environment. We have a long-term intention for this site to remain dedicated to our mission so we were determined to create high quality space, as often the disabled community operates from sub-standard facilities.
“Along with architect Jack McKinney and build team Kelton Builders, we have been very intentional in our design, and have taken care to customise the environment to accommodate the unique sensory needs of neuro-diverse people. Consideration has been given to light and sound sensitivity and this has informed the material and equipment choices throughout the building. Mobility hazards have been minimised with flooring choices, level indoor/outdoor transitions, and wide access points. There’s a ramp from street level into the site and a wheelchair-accessible lift has been installed between the ground and upper level.
“The café space has been designed to accommodate the unique needs of a working café that is also a live training environment, including an oversized kitchen area to meet the needs of trainees working alongside able-bodied coaching staff. The Flourish team does a wonderful job; we applaud their dedication and we are very pleased to support them and their cause and to offer this kind of facility to the community.”
