Bianca Stern

1. Tell us a bit about you

Bianca, 27, Sydney sider by birth, Melbournian by choice. I am passionate and energised about the disability and not-for-profit sector. More broadly I am excited about what opportunities lie ahead in these sectors, and I appreciate the fact that the ideas in these fields are often less traditional and creative.

I realised that teaching was not the right fit for me (halfway through the degree) and I am now pursuing a postgraduate degree in social impact.

I previously worked at Flying Fox and was also a disability support worker. I am now the General Manager (and founding member) of All Things Equal, where I relish the challenges of social impact and philanthropy.

Lastly, I like to eat my scrambled eggs with vegemite on the toast (no butter).

2. Can you tell us about All Things Equal (ATE)? 

All Things Equal is a not-for-profit social enterprise that exists to bridge the gap between people with a disability and the wider community. We provide purposeful training and award-based employment.

We have an employment pathway model providing an entry into the world of hospitality, with training and real-world expectations, with the ultimate goal of ATE being the stepping stone for someone to transition into the hospitality industry. We want to change the way people view and include people with disability in the workplace. People with disability are ready, willing, and absolutely capable of working. We collaborate and partner with like-minded organisations who also care about the important work we do.

We have 4 divisions to our work.

1. Cooking School – pre-employment (unpaid training)

2. Canteen – pre-employment (unpaid training), partnership with AJAX Junior Football Club. ATE runs the canteen with individuals with and without disabilities.  It provides another connection with the local community. We serve all the standard food you would expect in a football canteen.

3. Café – paid employment and training, our café is located in Balaclava.

4. Catering – paid employment and training. We cater for pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan diets.

3. What do you love about your job? What are some of the challenges? 

I love so much, I have never had a job that is as challenging and complex as this one while being so rewarding and thought-provoking.

I love the people I work with, my colleagues with and without disability, the work we do, the place, the social interactions, the advocacy, and the wider community. Every day I get to see the little wins firsthand.

I am grateful I was given this opportunity and backed when I was young. I feel like there are endless possibilities and I am encouraged to think differently on the daily. I get to push boundaries and break assumptions and biases.

Additionally, we have provided over $350,000 in award wages to people with a disability since we started All Things Equal, which equates to approximately 10,500 hours of paid training.

There are many challenges. All Things Equal is young, we are only 3 years old. Therefore, because things haven’t been done before, often it is about being comfortable with mistakes, knowing we have areas for improvement and learning from what we have already done and what we are doing.

We have a waitlist of approx. 70 people. It’s a constant juggle between quality and quantity, we always want to provide a quality offering. I have mixed emotions about our waitlist; how cool is it that we have 70 people looking for work, however, how disappointing that our society hasn’t yet been able to find a solution to this challenge. The unemployment rate hasn’t changed in over 30 years, there is a lot more work to be done, and we’re committed to it.

4. Tell us about the positive impact All Things Equal is having on society? 

We are changing the way people view and include people with a disability in the workplace. We look at what people can do, the value added to the workplace. We want people to understand that employing someone with disability in their workplace is mutually beneficial.

A lot of people want to be inclusive in the workplace, however, they do not have the experience or knowledge and we are here to showcase this in action. The different programs we run are our training grounds, and our advocacy put into action.

5. How can someone from the TOM: Melbourne Community get involved? 

Lots of different ways: come to our café for coffee or brunch, come see what we do in action or order our catering for your next event. Be advocates for what we do, share our mission and help us get our name out there.

Or, if you work in the hospitality industry and you’re interested in being an employment partner of ours, reach out!

6. Any news or anything else you would like to share? 

There is a lot happening in the pipeline, we will hopefully be rolling out a second location soon, stay tuned!