Bianca Stern: an ally for disability inclusion

Tell me about All Things Equal.

All Things Equal is a not-for-profit hospitality social enterprise that exists to bridge the gap between people with disability and the wider community. We do that through providing purposeful training and award wage employment in hospitality-based settings.

We run a café on Carlisle Street, which is a pumping place for the Jewish community in Melbourne; we run a cooking school; a footy club canteen with Ajax Junior Football Club; and we do catering for our local community as well.

The goal of what we do is for our trainees – our staff members with disability – to develop hospitality skills, confidence and independence. We’re essentially the stepping stone for them to develop those skills and then move on and up into the open labour market.

Where do you fit in within the charity?

I have a strong disability background and focus, and my role at All Things Equal is incredibly broad. I do all the community engagement, philanthropy, advocacy, marketing, and strategy.

I really, really love what I do. I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in today if it weren’t for all the other amazing Jewish community initiatives that exist which supported me to develop my leadership skills and provided me volunteering opportunities.

For example, I used to work at Flying Fox, another non-profit in the Jewish community, as their Disability Education Coordinator and I learned a lot there.

What are some of the exciting projects in the works at All Things Equal?

The short answer is heaps! We’re beyond excited about running a food and beverage outlet at the Australian Open in January 2025, so we’re in full swing getting that ready. On top of that, we’ve got big plans to open a second café next year – that’s definitely keeping us on our toes. And, of course, we're constantly refining our offering and training programs to make sure they remain high quality. Stay tuned…

What does disability inclusion in the workplace look like in practice?

It's all well and good for us to talk about what disability inclusion looks like in the workplace – but it's another thing to actually have the initiative to do something about it.

So first and foremost, it's looking at the individual as an individual. We know that every single person with disability is different. There's a saying that comes to mind which is: if you've met one person with disability, you’ve only met that one person with disability. That rings really true in our context.

We know that every person who works with us and who we support has their own unique interests, challenges, strengths and differences that they can contribute to our workplace.

For us, it’s about how can we provide a tailored approach to their experience at All Things Equal? How can we home in on that from a person-centered approach and a strengths-based approach? How do we make sure that we're looking at what the individual can do rather than their limitations?

In society in general, the unemployment rate for people with disability hasn't changed in over 30 years. There's lots of initiatives that have existed, but when it comes to actually embedding disability inclusion, in particular in the workplace, we haven't seen too much change.

I don't know if All Things Equal can change the statistic, but we absolutely want to be part of the solution.

How does Australia fare when it comes to disability inclusion?

I think we're falling pretty far behind in comparison to other countries.

The implementation of the NDIS has dramatically changed a lot of people's lives for the better, but I think as a whole, if we talk specifically about inclusion within the workplace, we're falling pretty far behind.

But if I think about disability inclusion specifically within the Melbourne Jewish community, I think we're actually excelling in that compared to some other communities. The organisations that exist to support people with disability in the Jewish community are beyond comprehension, they're absolutely invaluable. I’m really grateful to be part of it.

What makes the Jewish disability community so invaluable?

It comes down to the trailblazers in our community. Thinking about Flying Fox and its founder and co-CEO Dean Cohen OAM. He’s changed the way that disability and inclusion look in our community by building a network of young people who may have never met someone with a disability before. They attend a camp and all of a sudden, they’re advocates for inclusion, no matter what career path they go down. That's pretty cool.

It's just ingrained in Jewish values – supporting each other, tikkun olam, making sure you treat everyone the way that you want to be treated.

It's also very much ingrained in everything that we do when I think about philanthropy. People think that when we give philanthropically, it's only through money, but there's so many more things that have been ingrained in us from school, from family, from Jewish tradition that makes our community unique when compared to others.

Tell me about your personal connection to the Jewish community.

I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney in Dover Heights. I went to Moriah College and grew up in a modern Orthodox family. We had Shabbat every week, kept a kosher home – my brother and my dad are frum, and my brother is actually a rabbi who lives in London.

I went on IBC – Israel By Choice – after school, and by the time I moved to Melbourne eight years ago, I knew that I wanted to immerse myself further in the Jewish community.

Judaism is and was and will continue to be the absolute heart and soul of my family. It’s ingrained in me all the values and ethics that I hold. Who I am today is a testament to my upbringing – to my family, my school and the Jewish community initiatives I took part in.

Your experience within the for-purpose space spans LaunchPad, Social Enterprise Network Victoria and the Centre for Social Impact, among others. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

I don't know if I can pinpoint it to just one lesson. My life has dramatically changed because I work in the for-purpose space. The sense of reward; the sense of connection and community; and the sense of personal and professional development that I've experienced – I know I would not be able to get that in the corporate sector.

Being in this space allows me to think strategically and allows me to reflect on myself, the type of person that I want to be and – this sounds cliché – the change that I want to see in the world. I believe I see real change and that's not because of me, that's because of the team that I work with.

How cool is it that I get to be part of something bigger than myself every single day that is actually changing people's lives?