29/10/2024
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE UPDATE
Hi supporters,
It is with some sadness that I am sharing the news that Laidley Community Centre will not be continuing to operate our social enterprise in Patrick Street from next year. Increasing costs and reduced government incentives for delivering traineeships have contributed to this decision. Our organisation is committed to seeing all of our existing trainees complete their qualifications with us and this is well on track to occur. Further, we are keen to look for other opportunities to support employment and training of young people locally, and will be exploring ideas for alternate activities to achieve this. We are pleased to have our Supervisor, Kaitlyn, able to do some work with us to explore some new initiatives in the first part of next year.
Our last day of trading will be the 20th December 2024 when we will be having a cake for morning tea to thank our regulars and supporters and recognise our staff who have contributed to the project over the past 6 years. We’ll publish more details about this closer to the time.
To get ahead of some questions: we will have a system to honour any prepurchased gift cards that may not be used prior to our closure and we will let the local community know when we are ready to list any equipment for sale (at this stage in mid-January). If there are other questions or concerns regarding this decision I would request they be sent to me at [email protected] so I can respond directly.
Finally, the local support over the past six years has been amazing and we wish to thank our regulars in particular. We have true admiration for small business owners and how hard they all work and we’ll continue to encourage community members and visitors to ‘shop local’ whenever they can. And for those who have come to love our brew, we will still have freshly ground coffees from our regular supplier being made at the community centre in Mary Street anytime you need your fix (though with admittedly less variety in terms of menu!).
Thank you again for your understanding in relation to this difficult announcement and support of our CG team at this time.
~ Alana Wahl,
Manager, Laidley Community Centre
