People of Maitland, Yvette's got your back

Already an active volunteer, Ms Cavanagh is no stranger to helping those in need, whether that was as chair of Maitland Relay for Life, or as manager at Reading Cinemas, helping out drives for natural disaster victims and putting on events.

"I'd been involved with charity for a lot of years and I'd had over a decade with the cinema, where I loved the charity work," Ms Cavanagh said.

"The opportunity arose to come and work for the girls at Got Your Back Sista, and I absolutely love it - it's doing what I love all the time now instead of part time.

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"I get to work with amazing women and assist amazing women who have escaped domestic violence and are putting their lives back together."

When COVID hit in early 2020, Ms Cavanagh said she had staff at the cinema who were doing it tough - this is how one of her more recent ventures, Cook Off Girls, began.

"When COVID hit I had some staff at the cinema who had no family support and the government funding hadn't kicked in yet, so I started cooking for them at home," Ms Cavanagh said.

"I had friends from interstate calling and saying 'can you take some meals to my mum', and I was giving meals to some of my friends who were nurses doing massive shifts.

"I put a callout on Facebook and a few of my friends came in and we started doing weekly cooks all through COVID, and now that COVID has settled we cook once a month."

The group cooks at HopeUC church in Maitland, who now deliver the meals for the Cook Off Girls.

"Anybody who's in need of meals can contact the HopeUC church and they can help them out," Ms Cavanagh said.

Ms Cavanagh said she thinks it's important to help others, because anyone could fall upon tough times.

"Everybody at some point goes through a stage where things aren't going great for them and it's always nice to know there's someone around who's going to assist or help them in some way, and you never know what's going to happen," she said.

"A lot of people can become homeless, lose a job, lose their housing and life changes very quickly for a lot of people, so it's important to have community support.

"Maitland is very well renowned for supporting people in the community, it's a great town, the community is really generous."

Ms Cavanagh said she is so involved with volunteering because not only does it make her feel good, but she has met some amazing people.

"Cook Off Girls started with just a few of my friends and then people I'd never met saw our Facebook page and put their hand up to come and help," she said.

"We've all become great friends now, but we're all from completely different backgrounds and have come together under one common goal of helping the community."