from YAPRap September 2004
by Al Bingham, YAPRap Feature Writer
Last month we looked at Channel Café, a youth café that has been running for almost seven years. This month we take a look at a new kid on the youth café scene.
The Homebass youth café has been operating in Bankstown for three years. It has an ideal location, being a short walk from Bankstown railway station and a large shopping precinct, and facing a large park where many young people like to hang out.
The café took about two years to plan and one year to set up. Bankstown Multicultural Youth Service (BMYS) used to run a drop in from a youth centre for three days each week, but the location wasn't very accessible to young people. After discussing options at length with the BMYS Management Committee, the organisation decided to switch to offering a café style service.
Once this decision had been made the youth workers spent two years researching other successful cafés being run in NSW. They took a video camera to youth cafés, so that they could remember some of the features, and also show them to Management. In particular, they sought advice from workers at the Channel Café in Penrith.
During this planning stage a drive-by shooting at Lakemba Police Station took place in November 1998. This event attracted heavy media attention, particularly in the Bankstown area. In response, the NSW Premier asked that a whole of government response be developed response to youth issues in the Canterbury-Bankstown area. BMYS was able to use this window of opportunity to gain funding for their café from the Premier's Department to establish their ideal youth cafe.
The café began with a focus on meeting the needs of young people living in and frequenting the Bankstown area, and has stayed very youth focused by ensuring that activities are relevant to young people. To do this it conducts annual surveys of young people as well as talking with those attending the drop in. These two methods of consultation ensure that the service is always up to date with what young people want.
A structured activity is offered at each drop in session, as a result of this consultation. This might be an educational group about an aspect of health such as body image, a trivia competition, a pampering session, a cooking lesson, a gardening day or work with digital media such as cameras and the internet. These activities are combined with less structured pastimes such as sitting and chatting on couches, playing networked computer games and eating.
A young women only afternoon is also held, due to the fact that many young females living in the local area aren't allowed to hang out with young men. Such days give Islamic women an appropriate environment in which to remove their scarves and interact in a more comfortable fashion with their peers. However, there are still a lot of young women who attend the drop in at other times.
The café has acted as a important link between Bankstown Multicultural Youth Service and the wider community. Young people who access the café are more likely to access other parts of BMYS, which in turn acts as a 'gateway' to other services. Once young people have learnt to trust the youth workers at Homebass they feel safer to trust other BMYS workers and then to extend that trust to a variety of other community organisations. Often Homebass staff are the first adults that young people have had a positive relationship with.
The café also creates opportunities for community workers to access young people in their own space. An outreach worker from Centrelink often attends, making it easier for young people to hand in their relevant forms on time. It is hoped that links with other services can be forged in a similar way, in future.
Another way of linking young people to the wider community has been through encouraging café regulars to take part in local activities separate from Homebass. An example of this was training young people how to do face painting, and then taking them to festivals and stalls so they could ply their new trade. This has created a sense of community leadership and involvement in the face painters, and projected a positive image of the café. Youth workers have noticed young people taking on more responsibility, and acting in a more mature fashion, as a result of this kind of project. Overall Homebass tries to encourage a 'give it a go' attitude. It creates an environment where people feel comfortable to take safe risks.
Initially different sectors of Bankstown were very resistant to the idea of establishing a youth café, particularly one situated in the heart of the Central Business District (CBD). Moving young people away from the CBD was seen as the best way of dealing with them. In particular, local businesses wanted to shut Homebass down. By raising the profile of young people in positive ways the café was able to effect a small shift in how they were perceived. Now people aren't as negative about young people and youth services in general. Young people are more visible, and are encouraged regularly to conduct different music and cultural performances around Bankstown. Their ideas are being heard.
Homebass café is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 3pm to 6pm, and Thursday and Friday from 4pm to 7pm. Wednesday is a Girls Only afternoon. Between twenty and thirty young people access the café each day, and the service is available for people aged 12 to 24.
Cafés are a very popular option with young people. They can be used to create environments that are quite relaxed and a little bit different from your usual youth drop in. Late teens appear to find them an extremely attractive option. Maybe a youth café is just what your area needs.
Tips from the Homebass crew
- Don't try to do too much with your café.
- Don't let anyone else pressure you to do too much.
- Set realistic job descriptions for café staff.
- Build the service one part at a time. Hold off putting the next part in place until you have adequate resources.
- If your café is a sound idea you will more than likely get funding for it without rushing anything. If you rush you may end up with a useless service.
- Don't agree to do anything for the sake of funding, unless you are convinced that it will work.
- Don't go into partnership with people who you don't really have an equal partnership with. Even written agreements cannot protect you!
- Don't rush into things for the sake of a good partnership.
- Suit activities to the needs of the young people.
- Get advice from other cafés before you set up yours.
- Homebass rules!
Snapshot of Homebass
Who
Young people aged 12 to 24, living in and frequenting the Bankstown Local Government Area.
Replication
Many organisations would be able to set up a café in their local area, provided that they had the worker hours to staff it, the space, and the resources to set up serving counters and places to sit.
More information
Mary Malak
Service Manager, Bankstown Multicultural Youth Service
02 9790 3406
manager@bmys.ngo.org.au
