Toowoomba community based organisation Base Services, is changing its community through Vocational Education and Training (VET) with its award-winning project that turns its soup kitchen’s patrons into hospitality professionals.

Recognised as the 2025 Queensland Training Awards Community Initiative of the Year, Base Services is empowering individuals by helping them gain the skills they need to build a brighter future.

Through the support of Skilling Queenslanders for Work, Base Services delivers accredited hospitality training in a unique and supportive environment at the Basement Soup Kitchen.

Base Services Co-Founders and Coordinators Nat and Tiffany Spary said the organisation focused on providing dignity and support above all else.

“We work with people facing difficult circumstances such as homelessness, drug addiction, family breakdown and mental health,” they said.

“Around 2016, we came up with the idea to start a Second Shot project. So we partnered with Queensland Government’s Skilling Queenslanders for Work to offer a Certificate I in Hospitality.”

Participants not only develop valuable skills and real-world experience but also discover renewed confidence and purpose.

“Now people might come in for a meal, but they end up doing a traineeship and serving someone else a meal. What’s even better is that they go on to work somewhere else!”

In 2026, National Skills Week’s theme is Life Changing, celebrating the changes VET can make to individuals, industries, systems and communities, and Base Services showcase the impacts VET can have on community.

With more than 300 participants engaged in the Second Shot traineeship over the past 10 years, Base Services has made significant impacts on the prospects of its community’s members.