Kaine's Global Generation Story
Kaine Thompson is 18 years old and has been at the Golbal Generation's Skip Garden for 5 years. He’s currently working as a Barista in the café.
My roles basically involve some cooking, taking orders, washing up, waitering, taking orders, making coffees. Stuff like that. My favourite thing about the Skip Garden is the amount of people I get to meet on a daily basis. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was somewhere else. I wouldn’t get to learn the things I’ve learned or meet the people I’ve met
When I came here I was 14, I had a lot of anger towards the world, a lot of attitude. I didn’t want to be open at all but I think being here and learning the amount of things I’ve learned and meeting people I didn’t think I’d get along with but do; it’s really made me a better person.
I’ve got a new sense of determination, patience and drive. A sense of innovation and a sense of self belief, because I think that before I came here I was turning down a lot of opportunities because I thought I couldn’t do it or that it wasn’t going to benefit me. But working at the Skip Garden has really shown me that I can do anything I want to.
I’m currently doing the alumni project where funders give money to help us explore our own projects while maintaining the ethos of Global Generation. My project involves using foods to explore what the term ‘community’ means and maybe develop a new sense of community. I pick a culture or cuisine that I’m interested. I find out the ingredients, whether it’s something that is a tradition within the country or something that is particular to that meal.
I also research the countries nearby to see if it’s a trend throughout that continent. I then make the dishes and serve them in the café here at the Skip Garden. Then when people want to pick something that I’ve made I’ll explain to them at the till what I’m doing.
I think what makes the Global Generation stand out above other youth organisations is that here you are respected as an individual. And what you want to do with your life is very much taken into consideration. I feel like with other organisations they’re very sold on the fact that they are the adults and you are the child and they’re there to help you. But I feel that everyone who works here is very open to not only giving me information but me giving them information so they can learn about my age group
I feel the world is a much better place than it was in the past. But we’ve got a long way to go. We may have eradicated, on the surface at least, problems such as racism and homophobia but I still believe we need to integrate more. Instead of just accepting people for who they are we need to be interested in each other, we can’t just say “yeah, it’s ok to be black but you do that over there and I’ll do what I’m doing over here”. In my opinion we need to be more of a society. I’m not saying we shouldn’t sit around the fire holding hands singing Kumbaya but we need to really take an interest in other people. I think that’s the key.
A charity like Global Generation can help eradicate these issues by just being what it is. Nobody is unqualified to be here. With a lot of other organisations, such as retail jobs, you’re employed because of your looks or experience and stuff like that. Global Generation really is for everybody. I have quite a lot of dreams. I just don’t know which one to start off with. I’m determined to achieve all of them but I think the main thing, or the common denominator between all of my dreams, is working with people. That’s what I want to do.
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Skip Gardens