ABUNDANCE College's Cleveland cafe is putting young trainees living with autism on the path to employment.
Student Danni Sloane said she had been working towards a Certificate II in Hospitality since joining Java Train Cafe on Bloomfield Street in October and was now poised to take over as supervisor.
"It has been a lot of fun and I'm learning a lot," she said. "I have some physical health conditions that have made it a little bit difficult for me to find sustainable employment.
"Coming here to Abundance College and the cafe, I have been able to find the support and encouragement ... so I can manage my medical conditions and a work life."
Abundance College is a not-for-profit training organisation operating out of Cleveland that helps people living with autism gain independence for the workforce.
Secretary Kylie Dawson said the organisation was tapping into its students' strengths rather than trying to change their weaknesses.
"The focus is people who have got barriers, more sort of in line with autism," she said.
"We established in 2017 with the idea of providing support once they have left high school so that they can learn skills for employment.
"The current program we have going has been funded by the state government under Skilling Queenslanders for Work.
"These students that we have at the moment are our first intake."
Ms Slone said she was apprehensive about a career in hospitality at first but changed her tune after spending some time at the cafe.
"Because I was struggling with Centrelink and things like that, I rung Kylie because she had been my trainer for the another course and she said 'come and do this certificate in hospitality'," Ms Sloane said.
"I love learning about the coffee. There is a lot of different drinks, a lot of different ways to make them and a lot of different interpretations, so I find all of that really interesting."
Ms Dawson said Java Train Cafe was opened on January 12, the day after greater Brisbane's snap coronavirus lockdown.
"We do have a coffee trailer that we were taking around to a lot of places but found it was creating a barrier for them (the students) to evolve and be supported properly," she said.
"We looked into a permanent location and came across the old Happy Cloud Cafe on Bloomfield Street.
"We applied for a lease and were lucky enough that there was an empty shop across the courtyard, so we have taken on that space which is where they (the students) do all their theory based training."
Java Train Cafe is located at 15/99 Bloomfield Street, Cleveland.
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