Café Stepping Stone
Cafe Stepping Stone was originally founded in 2017 in Colombia by Vanessa Brettall, Tom Navakas and Hannah Costello. Its aim was to provide a safe and comfortable space to facilitate learning, growth, confidence and provide quality, comprehensive training and employment to local disadvantaged youth. They also established, with partners, a micro-finance program to support local entrepreneurs.
While they achieved much there, COVID saw them head back to Australia to start again.
In Canberra, Vanessa and Hannah opened Cafe Stepping Stone, a place that provides wonderful local food and employment to local migrant women. Their purpose is to celebrate diversity.
We prepare and serve vegetarian food for locals and tourists in the cafe and do some catering. The majority of our food is sourced locally from ethical producers. We’re located in the historic homestead gallery at the Strathnairn Arts Centre, a beautiful space on the outskirts of Canberra.
After our experience in Colombia, we wanted to continue to do good and it was apparent that there is an issue here for women that have little or no formal job experience and poor English skills.
So, we decided to offer employment, where we could, to refugee and migrant woman. The staff we have had over the past two years have come from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Syria and Palestine.
Our primary goal is to offer women a safe environment in which to learn. Most have no work experience and poor English skills but are very keen to learn.
We currently employ 14 women, some casual, part-time and full-time. While we always meet with everyone who enquires, we do not always have a job for them. It’s very hard to not get people’s hopes up, particularly women with low confidence in their employment abilities.
The intention is to instil a sense of well-being and belonging. We aim to increase their independence by providing them with income, training, qualifications and work experiences. There is no set time frame for how long women stay with us, some have been with us for a while now, others move on once they have the skills and confidence to do so.
Establishing networks and connecting with quality professional services like accountants and lawyers. They assisted us in setting up and establishing our constitution. We continue to have a strong mutually beneficial relationship and reach out whenever we need assistance. Mill House is a constant support, almost like an informal advisory board.