Last year, Wanta introduced some ‘Social Enterprise’ projects within some of our communities. Our aim is to support students in developing and delivering their own social enterprises in their communities. The goal is to develop their understanding of social enterprises, how running a small business can support economic freedom, and to provide opportunities for them to develop a multitude of skills, including independence, confidence, customer service, money handling and teamwork. The hope for the Academy Directors is that the skills and experiences they will gain through their social enterprise projects will allow students to highlight strengths, perhaps find enjoyment or purpose in the process, and may contribute to them undertaking employment in the future…and maybe even setting up their own small business one day!

In this blog, we provide an exciting update on ‘Bagai Barista’ in Ngukurr!

Bagai (verb) – something that is cool and stylish.

Barista (noun) – someone who serves coffee.

The Bagai Barista’s in Ngukurr are taking their café to a new level! What started out as our small social enterprise project of making a few coffees for teachers, has now turned into a full operation…and the students have decided they want to take it even further!

While the students loved seeing the teachers faces light up with each coffee delivery, they thought why not let all of Ngukurr have the same experience. With this idea in sight, plans have begun to take shape in the form of a new community shop!

Students have been working really hard on a business plan that involves all the ins and outs of their coffee shop idea and how it will run. The next step is to deliver their proposal to school council. Watch this space to see what big things are coming for Bagai Barista!

Wanta are so proud of the hard work, time and effort that the young barista’s have demonstrated so far into their café journey. Students have not only developed barista skills such as milk frothing and coffee grinding, but teachers have been amazed by the improvement of confidence, communication and professionalism of students. We could not have come this far without the ongoing support of RSAS and the staff of Ngukurr School. We are so excited to see what is yet to come for the Ngukurr Community, hopefully it involves more coffee from our shop!

Written by Will Georgiou, Ngukurr Sports Academy Director.