A NEW Grimsby charity has the recipe for getting its service users into employment.
Care4all, which provides services to older people and people with disabilities, hopes to enable users to gain valuable work experience through its new café and charity shop.
As reported, Care4all Enterprises is a group of social businesses which aims to create real training and experience which could lead to paid employment.
The new shop, Keeping Up Appearances, in Victoria Street West, provides a wide range of high-quality products from wedding suits to fashion dresses, as well as other items, such as DVDs.
The new café is located at the Queen Street, Care4all centre.
The charity also runs two cafes at Freshney Green Primary Care Centre and at Oasis Academy Wintringham and the 4AllSeasons garden centre at the rear of Cromwell Road Health and Wellbeing Centre.
Enterprise manager Sean Brown said: "We have opened the café and the new store to the public.
"These new enterprises will join with the two cafés we already have and the garden centre.
"We are not a charity of the traditional type, we work like a business.
"We don't ask for money donations, all we ask is that you use our enterprises.
"The more these are used, the more opportunities we can offer. We currently have 35 staff of which 80 per cent have some form of disability.
"If these businesses grow, we can offer more paid opportunities to our service users."
The new café offers a wide range of meals and a free-to- use cyber café. Customers can also hire the staff to prepare buffets for functions off the premises.
Sean added: "We hope these enterprises will encourage interaction with the public.
"The opportunities we provide help the service users prove to themselves, their carers and any potential employers that they can hold down a paid job.
"The experience is crucial. Many employers will not consider you without relevant experience.
"The new café currently has six paid employees and we have also given work to one man who has volunteered here.
"It is hoped these employees will find new jobs and allow another group to work the café and gain experience.
"Over the five years we have been running we have helped more than 300 people, with many going into further employment."
Café manager Gill Webster says the enterprise scheme makes a real difference.
She said: "I was a service user at Care4all, Sean gave me a job working the café.
"It was just a couple hours a week, but it grew and now I manage all three cafés.
"The businesses give service users a boost to their confidence. It's not just a job, it's a great friendship with lots of support.
"It gives people something to be proud of, a reason to go outside and they get paid for their work.
"I have seen many people go from our enterprises into further employment."
See for yourself
For opening times and additional information call 01472 571101.
