The category is part of the annual Australian of the Year awards run by the National Australia Day Council. The cafe - now a franchise of three outlets that employs and trains people with a mental illness - has also recently won Casey Business of the Year and Office of the Public Advocate awards.

Mr Cheeseman, a Narre Warren resident and an experienced barrista, told the Weekly it was always "in my head" to help people with mental illness and disabilities.

He says he understands depression; his father and grandfather had committed suicide. His sister, who has an acquired brain injury, has struggled to find work.

"The cafe has helped me to accept the losses.

"When you take someone off the street who's homeless, weighs more than they should, has drug addictions and a mental illness, then six months later they're a new person - that's why you do it.

"We ask if this was to happen to me, how would I expect to be treated?"

Being recognised as a Local Hero was humbling but he was determined to make the most of the spotlight to help win government funding for more cafes.

"Give me $600,000 to build a store and yes, it's a big one-off payment but you're getting several people into work and being taxpayers. They're not going to hospital as much, not using as much medication.

"The government wins, the client wins. You're not costing them money, you're saving them money."

The cafe was born from a meeting of minds with Ermha chief executive Peter Waters, whose service helps more than 1000 people in the south-east. Many of them want to work but suffer discrimination or the job pressure gets too much.

Ermha employed Mr Cheeseman to run the first cafe in 2008 in Dandenong - the first retail business of its type in Australia. The brand employs 100 staff, including in higher-profile stores in Fountain Gate and Geelong. There's further interest in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.