It was the first time the 35-year-old, who has Down syndrome, had been handed a payslip and wage, and was being treated just like everyone else.

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Earlier in April her brother Adrian took to social media to find his fashion-loving sister a job to help her "regain confidence and independence", traits the COVID-19 pandemic had taken away.

"Over the last couple years we'd noticed a change in her - she was less confident, not talking as much and clearly missing something," he said.

"She finds it hard to say what she wants to say sometimes."

Within in hour of posting a plea to Facebook, Mr Erdedi was overwhelmed by the response and managed to secure employment at both the northern Illawarra retail store and Blackbird cafe, which are walking distance to home.

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Though shy at first, Miss Erdedi told the Mercury she liked meeting people and the independence felt by being employed and doing things on her own.

"It's a really big thing for Simone to walk out and feel like she is like the rest of us where she gets paid and has her own money to do what she wants with," Mr Erdedi said.

"It also creates an awareness of inclusivity for the area, and it also helps when Simone does walk to work people will know who she is and keep an eye on her ... this community is good for that sort of thing and looks after each other."

The Collective's Sheralee Rae agreed with Mr Erdedi that employing people of different abilities reinforces inclusiveness in the community.

"People can feel isolated, whether it's race, religion, their size, hair colour ... or feeling like they should look a certain way," Ms Rae said.

"We want to welcome everybody, and everybody is part of this community."

She said she wanted to help give Miss Erdedi purpose again and self worth, and had already noted a boost in confidence after her first couple of shifts.

Chris Henry of Blackbird said Miss Erdedi was a great worker, but her employment also set a good example to their "staff, our juniors and customers in general to help get rid of the stigma".

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Mr Henry has used his cafe as a vehicle to support the local community in many ways over the last couple of years, something he said had now become instilled into their business model.

"We opened not longed before the first [pandemic] lockdown so in order for our business to operate we needed community support, so we want to give back as much as we can," Mr Henry said.

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