The Meaningful Engagement and Networking for Men (MEN4Men) group supports adult men from refugee background who survived torture and trauma have sustainable social connections and are willing to access support to improve their mental health and wellbeing.
Cook Like a Chef was a pilot project of ASeTTS which comes under Meaningful Engagement and Networking for Men (MEN4Men) program that supported men from refugee background. The objectives of the project were to improve their mental wellbeing and make social connections in the group setting, to challenge gender stereotypes by promoting strategic gender needs through a cooking project, to encourage men from refugee background to learn commercial cookery skills which can assist them to pursue future training and/or secure employment in the industry.
This project was facilitated by Brendan Pang, a celebrity cook, cook book author, and a social worker. The project supported 13 men from refugee background over 6 weeks which helped them to learn basic skills professional cooking industry and get connected with each other which helped them to improve their mental wellbeing. The average WHO 5 group index among project participants at the beginning of the first sessions was 53.5 which increased to 74.4 by the end of the last session.
During the project, participants had the opportunity to meet an advanced industry lecturer (Cookery and Patisserie) from North Metropolitan TAFE which helped them to understand the process to acquire a cooking qualification.
