Australia’s premier hospitality training centre for people with mental health issues, Flourish Australia’s Figtree Conference Centre, has won the Excellence in Workplace Inclusion at the Western Sydney Awards for Business Excellence.

The award acknowledges the effort Figtree Conference Centre puts into providing job and training opportunities for people who have a lived experience of a mental health issue – people who may otherwise struggle to find employment.

Since opening in 2013 the purpose-built Figtree Conference Centre at Sydney Olympic Park has hosted more than 1,100 meetings and events, including corporate and not-for-profit gatherings and exhibitions.

Figtree Conference Centre Manager Sue O’Rourke said “This recognition is a tremendous shot in the arm for everyone involved with Figtree Conference Centre. We change the lives of people who are often vulnerable and marginalised and find it hard to get a job or forge a career. We provide them with training and mentoring, a career direction and senses of meaning and purpose.

“One of the biggest keys to mental health recovery is meaningful employment and mixing with other people, and that’s on offer in spades at Figtree Conference Centre. It’s a thrill when we see people leave here with the knowledge and confidence to find their own way in the open employment market.”

Figtree Conference Centre competes in the open market with other top-line conference facilities across Sydney. Profits are fed back into the enterprise to assure the centre’s long-term viability.

Figtree Conference Centre complements a suite of employment enterprises and businesses delivered by Flourish Australia, which currently has more than 300 supported positions across the Sydney metropolitan region.

Flourish Australia is a not-for-profit organisation providing recovery focused support programs, accommodation and hope for more than 5,000 people with mental health issues in New South Wales and Queensland. Advocating community-based assistance, it is a leading mental health support provider that has been in operation for 60 years.

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