About A Pot Of Courage
A Pot of Courage Inc empowers women from diverse cultural backgrounds who now call the Ballarat region home. We aim to achieve this through creating employment and training opportunities, as well as encouraging and supporting innovative business ideas.
We like to call ourselves “Women of the World” (WoW)…. bringing our unique WoW factor to our café and catering customers, events and cooking classes.
A Pot of Courage (APOC) came about in 2018 while a team of Ballarat-based women from 14 different cultures were about to launch their book “It Take Courage – sharing secret recipes and stories from our homelands. I was working at Women’s Health Grampians running full-day sessions with these remarkable women each week. We shared stories, knowledge and lived experiences, while learning more about a range of topics. While discussing “barriers”, the frustrating experiences of trying to find employment and create financial freedom came up…time and time again. For many of the women in the room, there had been multiple job applications, very few responses, and almost zero interviews. Women who had years of experience were itching to work.
It was time to bring it all together – roll with the success of our book, draw on our unique backgrounds and offerings that the team could bring to the public, and support the team to create their own employment, training and income structure. We printed 750 copies of our book, which sold out. We hope to start creating Volume 2 later in 2021.
In 2018 we became a registered Charity. We then negotiated a pop up café space at Ballarat Community Health (Lucas), where we test drove our menu. We grew much quicker than expected, which lead to negotiating a larger space – at Barkly Square in Ballarat East. We prepare food for the café and catering orders by day, and transform into a dinner-performance venue by night.
We have extended our retail arm to feature skills and talents of other members of the A Pot of Courage family - providing income and business support opportunities for even more marginalised women.
We currently open the cafe each Wednesday to Friday, and cater for a range of activities and functions. Work will get underway shortly to create a large community commercial kitchen and training space at Barkly Square. On completion, we will start to run our cooking classes again. Our employee, volunteer and Board members change and evolve, but we still have at least 15 different cultures in our mix.
When we say “we change lives”, we actually mean it. We have a strong “empowered women empower women” philosophy, and are the first truly Intercultural café in Ballarat (Australia’s first Intercultural City). Keep up to date with our news on Instagram and Facebook.
- Shiree Pilkinton, Founder and Co-ordinator
A POT OF COURAGE CAFE – Barkly Square 25-39 Barkly Street, Ballarat East
Enquiries:
Shiree Pilkinton
Phone: 0438 871 503
Email: apotofcourage@gmail.com
About Got Your Back Sista
As the registered charitable arm of The Sista Code movement, our vision is to see women and their children happy, thriving and living independently after escaping the trauma of domestic violence.
As such, Got Your Back Sista offers benevolent relief and support to women and children escaping domestic violence and are at risk of living below the poverty line. We give a hand up for them to begin again and live independently.
Got Your Back Sista provides a pathway from refuge accommodation to sustainable independent housing, living and employment.
The charity is focussed on providing these services within the Hunter, Central Coast and Manning Regions with a look to expand to providing services throughout NSW in the next 12 months. We offer:
Begin Again Program
Helping women and children, moving from a refuge to independent living, setup a safe home by providing furniture, white goods and household items, plus food and personal care items.
Rise Up & Thrive Program
Aims to help women who have escaped domestic violence gain the confidence, support and skills they need to be happy, obtain employment and thrive.
The Rise Up and Thrive program comprises workshops, mentoring, reskilling (if needed), work experience and employment opportunities for participants.
Unfortunately, domestic violence is prevalent in our country and the single biggest driver of women in to poverty, which in turn has a significant impact on their well-being, health and happiness.
Our vision is to see women and their children happy, thriving and living independently after escaping the trauma of domestic violence.
Rise Up & Thrive Program
Aims to help women who have escaped domestic violence gain the confidence, support and skills they need to be happy, obtain employment and thrive.
The Rise Up and Thrive program comprises workshops, mentoring, reskilling (if needed), work experience and employment opportunities for participants.
Unfortunately, domestic violence is prevalent in our country and the single biggest driver of women in to poverty, which in turn has a significant impact on their well-being, health and happiness.
Our vision is to see women and their children happy, thriving and living independently after escaping the trauma of domestic violence.
Enquiries:
Phone: 02 4989 2777
Email: info@gybs.com.au
Mail: 15 Elizabeth Street, Tighes Hill NSW 2297
https://www.gotyourbacksista.com/