The Sweetest Gift is an Australian charity, set up to support transplant recipients and people living with chronic illnesses. The main focus of the charity is to provide stable employment to these people - something that many people take for granted. For some though, it can mean the world. The stability of ongoing work gives hope, connection, and it promotes self-worth. For some people, having stable employment can truly be the sweetest gift of all.
The Sweetest Gift Dessert Bar will be a workplace like no other. A social enterprise dessert restaurant where flexibility, support and understanding are as important as eggs, sugar, and flour and this will be given because we've been there too.
Our first dessert bar will be located in Sydney.
Can you imagine how hard it would be to live with a chronic illness and hold down a job, not knowing if your health will hold up? Or, if you can juggle your work commitments with medical appointments and fluctuating stress and energy levels?
We can tell you - it's not easy, In fact, without an understanding employer, it's impossible.
We surveyed nearly 300 transplant recipients and people with chronic illnesses who told us about their work and study lives. It wasn't sunshine and roses. In fact, some of it was downright heartbreaking - reading that people had been let go because they were "slacking off under the guise of a medical appointment” or being told at an interview "oh, we don't want someone who's always sick here - it'll bring the team down!". In fact, almost 90% of our respondents said that they wouldn't disclose their illness because of what had been said to them in the past.
Over 80% of our respondents said that they either didn't work or worked casually due to the needs of their health, and only 2% qualified for any form of Government support when they couldn't work.
The rest rely on family for financial support.
A handful of those surveyed scratched the surface of a much more insidious issue which goes hand in hand with chronic illness - that of social isolation. Loneliness is an increasing problem in today's general population, and for the chronically ill, - being unwell is isolating. And it hurts.
Something had to change. And we wanted to be that change.
The Sweetest Gift Dessert Bar isn't just employing people. It's employing people who otherwise struggle to maintain stable employment because of the changing and sometimes unpredictable nature of their health. It's giving transplant recipients and people with chronic illnesses the flexibility, support, and understanding that they need to work - because they are capable of working, whether that be for a few hours in a day, or a few days a week.
The dessert bar will employ people across a diverse range of roles and disciplines to suit as many people's existing skills and talents as possible, and because we understand that not everyone wants to bake or serve customers. We want our staff to do the best work that they can in the best way that they can, and we'll also have several key staff members who are not within the transplant recipient or chronic illness group to ensure the smooth running of the restaurant at all times.
Just imagine, after years of having to rely on family for financial support, knowing that a workplace existed where your unique circumstances were not only acknowledged, but accepted and embraced - where you could work and break the monotony of being "stuck" at home, and contribute financially to yourself or to your family - that's what we're aiming for.
You can be part of Australia's first social enterprise dessert restaurant and Australia's ONLY charity employing transplant recipients and people with chronic illnesses (that's a lot of firsts!)
All that we're asking for is a donation.
And whether that donation is large or small, it serves a sweeter, greater purpose - creating our first restaurant, hiring our first staff, and purchasing equipment. It also creates social change and gives hope to transplant recipients and people with chronic illnesses everywhere.