Active in HELL is about 'giving young people a chance'

The training program Active in HELL is about giving young people a chance in a commercial kitchen and exposing them to skills relevant for hospitality roles while getting paid, according to Ben Cumming, HELL Pizza’s general manager.

The idea of the Active in HELL scheme is to support youths with intellectual disabilities and enhance their job prospects.

Cumming added that it’s great to see trainees who, having been given the opportunity, have proven themselves able to be valuable members of the workforce.

Indeed, after six weeks of paid training in the kitchen of HELL Grey Lynn, local youths John Muroso and James Key graduated from the training programme.

Launched in 2013, Active in HELL is a joint initiative between HELL and IHC’s IDEA Services, and so far 116 youths have been paid to train in a HELL kitchen since the programme began.

Muroso and Key, both 24, are the sixth and seventh trainees respectively to complete their training at the Grey Lynn store, overseen by owner Marty Richards.

Comprising of two two-hour sessions per week over six weeks, the paid training is tailored to each participant and covers everything from mandatory health and safety education to preparing food for sale.

Even though the offer of a full-time role at the end of the training is not a stated goal of the programme, so far seven AIH graduates have been permanent employment with HELL.

Daniel Woodford, supported employment coordinator for IHC’s IDEA Services and national coordinator of Active in HELL, described the offer of paid training as “an amazing and exciting opportunity”.

“The paid aspect is so important, because it provides participants with some much-needed independence and the sense of being valued for the work they do,” said Woodford.

Moreover, Muroso said he “relished the opportunity” to learn new skills and has aspirations of becoming a chef.

“I had a great time working at HELL Pizza and learnt how to oil pans, work with dough and make pizzas,” he said.

“Everyone was very supportive and I enjoyed working with all of the other staff.”

While Key dreams of becoming a professional soccer player, he said his favourite part about training at HELL was making his pizza at the end of the day.

“Working at HELL taught me a lot about the importance of listening and following instructions carefully. I enjoyed following the processes and being a part of the team.”

Richards has been running the training programme at his store since 2014 and was one the first to get involved. He added that both Muroso and Key did well in their training.

“We found John to be quite a capable young man, who often underestimated his abilities; but, as his training progressed, he became more confident and was able to be left to do some jobs unsupervised,” said Richards.

“It was also a pleasure to have James as part of our team. His confidence grew as he became more familiar with the process and routine which was great to see.”