Coffee and Hope

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Think on good. Hello. Welcome to Think on Good, a programme to give insight into the best community

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connections to build a healthy mind. As a nation, we have a growing need for resources for those

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living in crisis. This can present in domestic violence, with 1 in 6 women and 1 in 16 men

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looking for support. The contributing factors to living in crisis can be in relationship

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breakdowns, financial distress or an addiction. And at times, all of these things culminate together.

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Today, we find out how to get from a crisis storm to a stable place with the wisdom and resources

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of Hope House espresso, supported by a growing community who give back to those in need every

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time they stop by for a cup of coffee. Home for Hope House espresso is a little pink cafe nestled

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on the waterfront of Alexandra Headland, Queensland, with co-founder Michael Foster and

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Julie Foster joining us now. Welcome to Michael and Julie Foster. Thank you for joining us. Thank

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you Judy. Thank you. Well, firstly how did Hope House espresso become. How did you get involved in

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this space? Yeah I feel like we didn't choose to get involved. Um, one day I was at my coffee shop

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on the Sunshine Coast, and the coffee shop beside it was for sale, and me and my wife started

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talking and just thinking. We've always wanted to do a drop in centre. Yeah. And, uh, but as we thought

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about that, we were thinking, well, I don't think it's the right place. So we just we just left. I

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went home and my wife gives me a call on the way home, and she's just saying, I just had this

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picture in my mind of all these women coming in and getting help in that cafe next door. And just

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as she said that, something went into my spirit, I guess, and I was holding, I was starting to

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sob on the phone. I think, what is this? And then my wife said, yeah, I've just been holding back tears

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as I got this picture of all these women coming in next door and being helped. And so I thought,

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wow, there's something in this. And about a month earlier, a friend had come to me and said, I feel I

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meant to support you, Mike, in something. And we were brainstorming and we couldn't work out what

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it was at the time. So we just left it and I felt, I think this is the thing. The problem was that it

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was $70,000 to be able to take over the business next door, and, and then we would have to fit it

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out. And I thought, I'm going to send an email to this supporter. I'm sure they're not expecting

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such a big ask, but I asked them, ask for a $70,000 loan. The next day they wrote

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back and said, can we talk? I got on the phone and they said, um, yeah, we're going to loan you the

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70,000. And then within two weeks they said, we feel that's meant to be a donation. And so

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absolutely out of nowhere. Within a few weeks, we had $70,000 to take over the business. But then it

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was, okay, we're going to need a lot more. We need to build a beautiful place, a space for women. So

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that's where my mum came in. Yes. So did you call up Julie and say, this is the vision and this is

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what's happening? And no, he's not as direct as that. It's all subtle. Yeah. So,

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um, we decided that, like, the shop was just, like orange walls and green walls and all sorts of

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things. And it was 17 years old as an old cafe. So I went, okay, this is a total refit. So we

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had others volunteer to do the design. But first of all, the refit, we had to strip

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everything out. So I went to the list of volunteers because Mike had asked for volunteers.

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We had about 30 to 40 of them, and I went through and did a skills audit to see who could project

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manage this. So I went right through and we were quite low on certain skills of like handed

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tools and all that sort of thing. But there was no one who had any project management skills except

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for me. And I went, oh, okay, looks like that's my job to project

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manage that refit. So the refit was one step and a beautiful pink it is

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and very welcoming and great coffee. So how does it all work with the

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dropping in for coffee and helping people at the same time? Hmm. Yeah. So and just to add to what

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my mum said there, um, we ended up with a, we think a couple of hundred thousand dollars in value,

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right? People kept asking, what's your budget here? We didn't really have one. And we add on about

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$40,000. And everyone from Mitre 10 to the electrician. Were giving half price discounts.

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Free this, free that. So that was an incredible encouragement. Um, so but look how it works is we

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believed I'm a business owner and we've always tried to help. Um, but as a business, you're limited

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to because you're for profit and you can only do so much. Um, and then on the other hand, I've had

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experience in charity work where you can, you know, you can set up like a drop in centre. Second hand

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couches are donated and you might have a volunteer on the machine and it's great, but

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it's not quite at the level of like what a business could operate. So we thought we thought

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between the two a business and a charity if you could combine the two. So you've got a fully

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registered, not for profit, tax deductible organisation that we are, and you bring in that

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business excellence. So you've no one's coming there thinking well we better go support Hope House

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espresso because they're doing great work. They go there because the coffee is the best. Yeah. But all

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the profits are going to the charity. So we combine those two together and we created this

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beautiful pink space. It's got a mums and bubs room upstairs. It's I've got a pink coffee machine.

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We think it's the only pink coffee machine on the Sunshine Coast. And so it's got this beautiful

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environment. But all the all the other stuff with helping clients, it goes on behind the scenes. So

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people contact us through our website, they fill in a form and then that's when the journey begins

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with us. Okay, so what would you say to someone who's in a crisis, Julie, you coordinate this side

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of it. That's right. So, um, they fill in a form online. That's how all our referrals come in. And

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very simple form. They can do it on their phone. It comes directly to us. And so then I make the

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contact and often they're very, um, let's just say reticent to say a lot. And I've got the

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form in front of me. Um, and if they're in significant overwhelm, some can be, um, I talk about,

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you know, there is hope. Um, there's plenty of people to help. Yes. All sorts of

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things that they're worrying about. You know, there may be answers or there's ways through just, um. So

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then I meet with them face to face, so at least had some conversation with me or some sort of

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connection. And usually we'll meet maybe after hours in the coffee shop because we want

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confidentiality. So, um, then if so, it's a space where they're not coming under my territory

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or me onto theirs. So, you know, I'm a stranger to them at that point. And then after that, um, I will

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go through, um, and just look at what is the issues for them and just try and,

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um, start to say, well, look, we can help in this way so they don't go away without anything at that

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point, ever. Because we need to demonstrate we can help in certain ways. Some of them need a lot more

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time, many more interactions, all sorts of things, referrals. But that at that point we want them to

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know we care. They are valued. We listen. Yeah, I think

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one of the biggest things that I've discovered accidentally is that if I

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listen with absolute no judgement. If I listen with just

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with the whole understanding that I just want to hear what they want, they don't need to hear

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from me. Um, in my work as a principle, I realise that it takes about 20 minutes for people to get

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out the stuff that they've got inside. And so just that silence, the aha! Okay I

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understand. Tell me more. Um, it actually is the most therapeutic thing

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for those people. It's almost you see them totally relax because they've been heard. That's good.

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Yes. Being a school principal would help with that sort of organisation of things as well. And

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listening, being a good listener is great. So, um, when someone comes along, what are the sort of

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resources that you draw on? Um, so the way we the way we look at ourselves is that if you went to

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the emergency room at a hospital, you would be triaged based on the various severity of various

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needs you have. So what we do is we triage people emotionally and mentally. We hear

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their situation, their problems, and then we have over 40 partner charities and organisations that

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we can help guide the person to so that they can get help in all of those various areas

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we offer. We have various specialities ourselves, but we realise that if we can recommend and

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support that person through other partnerships as well, then they're going to really get the help

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they need. Okay, so say for instance, if can you give an example of somebody that's called up,

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obviously without any names, but just an example of how you've helped someone go from A to the

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next place? Okay. So currently I have a lady who, um, is a

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migrant, has been here for quite some time. She's a family. There's seven of them, um, children and

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husband and myself. She had her own business. Uh, and I met her when she had been

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diagnosed with breast cancer. Um, her story was that she had lost her business because of her

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ill health, and she was unable to. So they had the finances were an issue. So her

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husband ended up having to give up his work because she was so incredibly ill from chemo. Um,

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she contacted us in the hope of trying to find some housing because they had to get out of their

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house. Um, and that's probably the most difficult thing at the moment. Housing and the need is great.

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But in that process, um, I was able to look at the wider thing other than the housing

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and try and be as supportive as I could be. And she was. And so we provided meals. So we

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did a lot of work where we could save money for them because they had to pay rent. And they're

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paying. They're in temporary places. One of them was costing them $920 a week. So the

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money was, you know, all the kids are putting in, um, had to go to that. And so

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we tried to help in other ways, but the emotional support and I'm still in contact. I contact her

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regularly because she's a really lovely lady. Yeah. That's good that you're offering that support if

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someone's living outside the area, the local area of Sunshine Coast, how do they get help? Yeah,

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because we're, you know, we have one channel to contact us. It's our website. Yes. So if people just

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go to Hope House, there's no com just Hope House dot au. Immediately they will see a button that says

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need help. Yeah I'm going to click that. They send the form. You fill out a form and that form will

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come to us and we can engage and help. We've helped people in South Australia, two ladies in

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South Australia, and we just draw on various connections in those particular areas. and we can

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definitely help from afar. Yes. So even if they think that others are worse than they are. Yeah.

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There's always that open door with yourselves. Like, for us, you know, there's no crisis too small.

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A lot of people think that. Is this really a crisis? If you're thinking that, fill out the form

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and get in touch with us. Because if it's a crisis for you, it's a crisis for us. That's great. And

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plans for other regions? Yeah. Look, we love the concept. And, you know, we think that Hope House

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espressos could be all around the country. It'd be great projects for community organisations,

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churches and just people that want to help in the community. And people want to do that. They can

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reach out to us and we can help them. All right. And we're just going to wrap this up, but I would

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love to know what your inspirational quotes are. Well, I'll go first. Okay. Well, I

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just love the story of the man who's walking along the beach, and there's thousands of starfish

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along the beach, and he's throwing them in one at a time, and someone comes along and says, Are you

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looking at really making a difference. I've got all these starfish. And he says, well, I made a

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difference to that one. Yeah. And that's how we see it. Like, you know, every person has dignity and

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value. Yes. And even if we just help a few, that matters. Yeah. That's a wonderful work that you're

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doing. Yeah, yeah. For me, it's the words of Jesus in Matthew 25. And he talked

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about, you know, helping. It was, you know, when I needed clothing, you helped me when I needed

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food you helped me. Yeah. That's great. That's a great saying. Thank you, a great scripture. So how can

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other people help? Well, if you go to Hope House Espresso, you'll also find a button there where you can

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donate. Um, every dollar is, you know, goes absolutely to the help and care of people. Um,

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our management team and our board are all unpaid. So that means that, you know, the money is really

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going to help these women in need. So women in crisis And or you can drop by the Pink Cafe and

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have breakfast. Yeah, that's the other thing we got. Beautiful menu there. Um, and. Yeah, grab a coffee

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and you'll be supporting us too. So every sip, you feel good because you're helping a woman in

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crisis. That's it. That's great. Thank you. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis

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situation and need support with homelessness, financial hardships, relationship challenges,

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loneliness and trauma, go to Hope House espresso website to fill in the form. A Hope House espresso

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representative will be in contact with you to set up a meeting in person or over the phone. Hope

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House espresso will then assist by coordinating and drawing on resources to provide support. This

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could be helping to register for housing, providing meals and at times counselling. A couple

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of helpful resources provided by Hope House espresso, including the Salvos Connect Assessment

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line one: 1300

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1800 474 753 and DV connect women's line

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1800 811 811. Hope House espresso is a not for profit cafe connecting the

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local and broader communities. To support this work. Go to the website to donate or follow the

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socials and come along to a special event, or simply visit the Little Pink Cafe at Alexandra

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Headland, Queensland. Think On Good is a program offering information for mind health and is not

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intended to replace medical treatment, professional advice or diagnosis. If you or

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someone you know is experiencing mental health symptoms for immediate support, contact lifeline

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: 1114

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next time, we hope you enjoy your day.

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Think on good.