NEWSBOYS FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2018 11 STREAT Special 125th Anniversary Grant On February 18, 2018, the Bowen Street Café opened. Supported by Newsboys and run by STREAT, the social enterprise takes some of the state’s most vulnerable young people and trains them up in hospitality and life skills, offering social work and other support to intensively intervene and give the young people a potential future. The Bowen Street location was chosen to honour the original work of the Newsboys Foundation, a nod to where the vulnerable, battling newsboys of early Melbourne used to sell papers. Within eight months of opening, the café had already provided 956 hours of training and support for young people. Even better, STREAT co-founder Bec Scott said the café’s young workers love being surrounded by other young people. Students at RMIT have embraced the STREAT crew in a learning environment, making the prospect of study and a future career feel achievable, even normal. “There’s youthful energy everywhere,” Bec said. “The shell on the oyster opens just that little bit more.” Bec loves seeing the long-term dreams of young people re-appear after being “disrupted” by some bad turns in life, whether it’s the young mum who is now revisiting her dream to be a lawyer, or one of STREAT’s original 2010 alumni who is on track to become an occupational therapist in Queensland. “Our job is to shine a light on those dreams and keep an eye on them,” Bec said. “Hospitality is basically a stepping stone to the big thing; where they want to end up.” Which can be a long way from where they are coming from. “Young people are not coming to STREAT unless some kind of genuine crisis is happening,” Bec said. “They come from prison, detox, homelessness agencies, and other such crisis points.” Recently, STREAT teamed with RMIT University to model figures on the economic benefits of STREAT’s work. Bec said: “By young people doing our training, modelling shows a saving to the community of $33,000 per year for the duration of that young person’s life. By the time they are in their 70s, that’s a $2 million saving. It’s clear that it costs more to leave these issues unresolved. Once you break the cycle, the next generation don’t have to go through the same stuff.” Since 2010, Bec estimates there has been $16 million in savings to the community in rescued, happier young lives. It’s always been about more than making coffees. The Newsboys Foundation first supported STREAT in 2011. STREAT is supported by several philanthropic organisations.