In 2020, the Centre for Participation's successful 'Laneway cafe' pathways program underwent changes as the pandemic limited front-of-house opportunities.

The program provides experience in running a profitable hospitality social enterprise to young people of all abilities and culturally diverse women.

Laneway's project manager Jessica Koenig-Fisher said the main goal of the program was to upskill participants into a position to potentially go into paid work, as well as extending life skills.

Courses range from one to six months and offer hospitality and work experience opportunities, as well as confidence-building and support.

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"We have two different pathways programs, one for multicultural women, they participate in a class on Thursday afternoon and do the pathways program in the kitchen," she said.

"The second is people with additional needs. They come from all walks of life, some come from the Horsham Special School and are looking for something after they finish there.

"For instance, we had a boy, and he did the pathways program with us, and now he is employed in a local cafe in Horsham."

Hospitality experiences include cooking meals for home delivery to the elderly and the meals on wheels program, as well as event catering - including the Horsham Agricultural Society's 150km Feast in February.

Participants from the Laneway program worked as kitchen hands for the event, with one participant cooking one of the meals featured on the event's menu.

Centre for Participation's Chief Executive Officer Robbie Millar said the centre was looking at ways to provide a variety of different front-of-house experiences for their participants.

"Moving forward that is one of the areas we are looking at. We know we are lost with the front-of-house cafe, so we are really looking at other ways we can provide a front-of-house service experience for our participants," he said.

"More importantly, not only good for the community but the more opportunities we have to do that work, the more meaningful work experience opportunities we can provide. That is actually the end goal.

"That is our focus and what we need to keep drawing back to as our reference point and what we need to achieve."

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Many participants for the Laneway program come through the Centre for Participation's language and skills courses.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as many hospitality venues were forced to shut down, the centre used the time to revise their 'Theory of Change' - the principles used by the group to guide their social inclusion programs.

The Theory of Change sets out to tackle the issue of social isolation and economic inclusion in the Wimmera by providing pathways and engagement to the community.

While the impact of COVID-19 was difficult to manage, Mr Millar said 2020 provided clarity on the group's purpose.

"We were in a fortunate position where we were proactive with our business planning once COVID hit," he said.

"Part of that business plan process actually looked at our theory of change and the purpose of our cafe and what we are trying to achieve. That gave us a clear direction about what we want to do moving forward and how we could achieve our goals.

"In some ways, COVID has been a really good opportunity to pivot our business model in a positive way for our participants."

Ms Koenig-Fisher has watched many participants join the program and grow, with several even offering to stay on after their course was completed.

"That is why we come to work everyday. For example, there was a participant at the 150km feast who had to go home for the night, so I told them and they said 'I don't really want to' so we asked their dad and they stayed behind for another half-an-hour," she said.

"They said it was so amazing and they loved it so much. That is amazing, to be able to give that to someone.

"For me, it is a really soul fulfilling experience. It makes me feel warm, what we are achieving here.

"I've been in hospitality for years and this is the most fulfilling experience that I have had, doing what I love, but also helping other people love it too."

In 2021 the Centre for Participation looks toward building the social networks that helped sustain it throughout the pandemic, while providing more opportunities to participants.

The group normally has two or three volunteers cooking meals everyday for home deliveries, with volunteers taking trips throughout the day to get food out.

For more information, visit https://centreforparticipation.org.au/.

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