MADCOW

MADCOW

Enterprise name MADCOW

What’s the trading activity MADCOW provides a range of services that provide ongoing support to those that are most vulnerable in Bendigo. Our social enterprise arm provides cleaning, gardening and community support services to the NDIS, Aged Care, commercial and domestic clients in the Bendigo region It also provides employment and training opportunities for Karen refugees. Profits from our social enterprise provide a range of services to those sleeping rough or at risk of becoming homeless.

What’s the social or environmental cause your enterprise addresses? MADCOW stands for Make A Difference, Change our World and exists to break the cycle of generational injustice. To help prevent family breakdown and homelessness. We are a self-funded social enterprise and registered charity. Our profits support our homeless services in the heart of Bendigo.

GAME Traffic & Contracting

GAME Traffic & Contracting

Enterprise name   GAME Traffic & Contracting

What’s the cause  We support and assist regional youth to discover their capabilities and inspire them to stay at school, resulting in employment and financial independence.

Our program, Geared4Careers, is fully funded through our commercial activities and is embedded in local secondary schools. Commencing in 2011, with only 30 students, our staff now support over 1026 youth to help further their education and employment opportunities.

What’s the trading activity  Our range of services include Traffic Management, Gardening and Grounds Maintenance, Traffic Equipment, Temporary Fencing and Event Hire. We are able to offer our customers access to a quality, compliant, commercially competitive service, whilst also providing them an opportunity to be part of something much bigger, making a positive long-term social impact in their community. Customers purchase our services and in turn, we contribute to improving the educational and employment outcomes for youth in the region, who then become the future employees for local businesses.

How are you going with the work?  Our growth has been well above expectations. In seven years we have gone from supporting 30 students to 1026, all of whom volunteer to be on our program because they can see benefit in being part of Geared4Careers. Our goal is to support 1,500 youth annually.

Biggest challenge  The biggest challenge we face is keeping up with the demand for support, from youth. In order to provide the support, we need to achieve growth in our commercial businesses.

Hopefully, as momentum for the Victorian Social Procurement Framework (SPF) continues to grow, and our commercial customers better understand their capacity to deliver social and sustainable outcomes, we will be able to achieve our goals.

Hope for the future  Equality for regional communities with our metropolitan cousins.

game.org.au