more than a business

At first glance, Baked by Us is a brightly coloured, busy little cupcake shop in the heart of Ryrie Street, but inside is a workplace with bigger things in mind.

Baked by Us, started by Geelong local Jess Robinson three and a half years ago, is a business with a mission to teach and support young people who have a disability to gain workplace skills and experience, giving them hands-on experience, and to sell delicious cupcakes and treats that sell out at the same time.

“We want to employ but also support people who are living with a disability to gain real workplace skills and experience. If employment is maybe not the goal or an option, for those people we can offer a place that they can feel part of our community and have a sense of belonging that they might not find elsewhere with other employers.

“Everything we do at Baked by Us is to support the people who work here – the delicious cupcakes and treats that people line up for, and sell out of on most days is just a bonus!”

As an autistic woman diagnosed later in life, Robinson felt she had the empathy and patience for those needing extra support in the workplace.

Having trained as baker and having a background in support work, Baked by Us is the perfect combination of her strengths.

Robinson was running a business making wedding cakes when she decided she wanted to make a meaningful career change.

‘I’d never been good with numbers or more academic, book smart, so I knew I wanted to do something creative, so I studied and did a baking certificate, and I started my own cake business because the people I was working for at the time they closed overnight.

“I started a cake-making business and I ran that for three years, and then when my dad passed away, I had a moment where I re-evaluated what I was doing with my life and I decided I wanted to do something a bit more meaningful, so I got into support work.

“Which is how I met my current business partner; he actually ran the support work company that I worked for and helped me start Baked by Us.

“A lot of the people I worked with then came to work at Baked by Us, and a lot of them still work here three years later, and it’s pretty much grown since then.

Robinson said the Geelong community has been continually supportive in their journey, and a big reason why the company had thrived since day one.

“We’ve been really lucky, during all the lockdowns people wanted cupcakes for comfort, so we had lots of people coming in. And the Geelong community’s been so supportive… which is why we’ve stuck around for such a long time.=

“A lot of the reason we are here is due to their support.”

Robinson said her goal since the beginning had been to create a business that was more than a normal caterer to the neurotypical workforce.

Baked by Us accommodates the individual parameters of those people living with a disability and also to celebrate what they can bring to the workplace.

 

“We’re not just a cupcake shop, there’s a lot more behind the scenes that goes on. I don’t think people are necessarily aware of what it takes to run a disability service,” Robinson said.

“It’s run like a disability support program, so we need to make sure that a day isn’t just filled with jobs like doing the dishes, but we make sure we’re actually making it a meaningful place where these people can come and actually learn and expand their opportunities, so we like to have almost like a lesson plan.

“We figure out what we’re doing for the day and then we work out how we can work in a life skill or an employment skill into the day, and how can that be translated into our work, and still make it a fun, engaging day.

“So, it’s a balance.”

Robinson said as well running the disability service, Baked by Us also ran the café like a normal café.

“So, we’ve got our kitchen leaders, at another place they might be called a support worker or a carer but here they’re called kitchen leaders. They’re our core team of 10.

“It’s not like a normal workplace with a manager giving directions to everyone, there is specialised support for individuals, so it’s a lot of one-on-one work to focus on those skills.”

As someone with learning difficulties herself, Robinson hoped more and more workplaces saw the benefit in creating environments that support those with learning difficulties.

She said living with undiagnosed autism for many years have her a lot of insight into how mainstream employers might benefit from creating environments that support those who are neurodivergent or struggling with learning difficulties.

“It made me realise I was passing as a neurotypical person, and it gave me insight into the challenges a neurodivergent person like myself might face in a workplace.”

With this in mind, Robinson said all systems at Baked by Us were built to cater for all skills and abilities.

“It’s little things like cash tendering. I personally struggled with cash, so we’ve made our shop EFTPOS only, and we’ve never had a till, so everyone who works on our till is able to put a sale through as all of our prompts are visual.

“I think that’s a big thing that’s lacking in mainstream employment, there is not a lot of time put into making mainstream workplaces more accessible and that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be a disability service, but even accessible to people who struggle with reading and writing as a small example.

“Our day to day is based around the assumption that not everyone has the same ability as each other, so all of our recipes have visuals, our jobs list is all visuals, so that makes people more confident and capable to perform the task.

“There just needs to be a different way to present information, and people see how capable the guys are that work here, when they’re given a different way to do things, there have been a lot of people who have missed out on mainstream employment and then they’ve thrived here and become really independent.”

Looking to the future, Robinson said Baked by Us planned to open a few more shops down the track and also hoped to start a gap year program next year.

“We don’t want people to be here forever, we want to people a stepping stone between school leavers and getting a job in mainstream employment.

“We used to have people who wouldn’t say a word to a company and now they can work at the front independently, greet the customer and put a sale through.

“It’s a really good place to develop people’s confidence.”

Running Baked by Us has also grown Robinson’s confidence as she settles into the business of the colourful, glitter-filled cupcake shop.

“There is a huge gap between what we do and what mainstream employers do, so there needs to be some bridges and pathways, and by the NDIS, to educate employers… so what we do here isn’t so special,” she said.

“You could walk into a café with someone with Down syndrome and it’s not a big deal; it’s an everyday occurrence.”

Visit Baked by Us at 78 Ryrie Street, Geelong or order online at bakedbyus.com.au