As The Weekly recently awarded the 2015 Women of the Future winners with scholarships to make a difference, we catch up with Jane Marx, a runner-up from the competition’s 2013 inaugural year, who is changing the lives of young Melbourne refugees thanks to her scholarship.
Two years ago, Jane Marx had a dream. As an English language tutor for members of Melbourne’s refugee community, Jane saw the difficulty that refugees faced in getting a job, and by providing work opportunities in cafes, Jane knew she could create something special. Drawing on her hospitality experience, Jane decided to set up Long Street Coffee and give young refugees the chance to receive training in barista and hospitality skills, plus the opportunity to build their self-confidence through paid employment.
Jane’s entry into The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Qantas Women of the Future competition inspired the judges to name her a runner-up in the competition’s inaugural year, and she used her $10,000 scholarship to pay for equipment and staff training, which saw Long Street Coffee run as a pop-up café at events around Melbourne.
Now, the success of those initial days of trade, as well as a crowd-funding campaign, has seen Jane’s dream become a reality.
“I was always confident that [the café] was a very good idea but, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if we would ever actually be able to pull it off. The Weekly was really the first to back us and the [scholarship] funding was crucial,” says Jane.
Jane and her husband Francois have converted a garage in a hip laneway in Richmond into Melbourne’s newest coffee den, and have employed three young refugees from Gambia, Malaysia and Iran to be their first employees.
Their employment requirements are simple: all employees must be younger than 30, have conversational-level English and a willingness to learn on the job – with no experience or previous training necessary.
“People are really getting behind us now, because the busier we are, the longer [our employees’] shifts are. It’s such a tangible outcome – by someone coming in and buying a cup of coffee, they’re contributing to increased employment,” says Jane. “People are able to see our staff working, having a go and sometimes they chat to them, so it’s mutually beneficial.”
Sheer determination and hard work has been the key to Long Street’s success so far.
After finding the space, Jane and Francois would work well into the evening after their full-time jobs to get the café open, pouring thousands of dollars from their own pockets into buying what they needed, building their own furniture and relying on donated materials, including a marble bar top, to create their café. And even though the pair have only taken three days off in over a year, they insist it’s been a labour of love – and it shows.
With a light, modern fit-out, seriously good coffee and a brand-new kitchen serving breakfast and lunch, Jane and her employees have been swept off their feet since the café opened in June.
“We did our first payroll run and the response from one of our staff members made [the hard work] worth it. She was quite emotional and said she’d tried so hard for so long [to gain employment], no-one gave her a chance and now she can’t believe that she has a job – that made all the years and hours of work worth it.”
Long Street Coffee
45 Little Hoddle Street Richmond
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 4pm
Visit www.longstreetcoffee.com
