New Queen Victoria Market initiative backs social enterprises to create jobs

A new six-year social enterprise program has launched at Queen Victoria Market, testing whether stronger business foundations can translate into better employment outcomes for people facing barriers to work.

Led by Melbourne social enterprise STREAT and supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the LikeWISE pilot will bring together Work Integration Social Enterprises, or WISEs, in a shared ecosystem anchored at the market.

The initiative builds on STREAT’s Purpose Precinct, established at Queen Victoria Market in 2022, and will initially involve Purpose Precinct, Killara Foundation and WomenCAN Australia.

Over six years, the program will expand to support up to nine organisations, offering shared infrastructure, peer learning, enterprise development support and collaborative trading opportunities.

A matched-trading model will also be used to test whether investment in the commercial strength of social enterprises can help them create more sustainable pathways into work.

STREAT co-founder and CEO Rebecca Scott said LikeWISE represented the next stage of the organisation’s work with the social enterprise sector.

“For more than 15 years, STREAT has worked alongside over 400 social enterprises across Australia to share our learnings and strengthen their impact and sustainability,” Ms Scott said.

She said bringing organisations together at Queen Victoria Market would create “a practical demonstration of how place-based collaboration can generate stronger employment outcomes, stronger enterprises and stronger communities”.

The inaugural participants will each bring a different focus.

Purpose Precinct works to create employment pathways for young people facing barriers to work, while Killara Foundation supports First Nations economic participation through enterprise and innovation. WomenCAN Australia focuses on women’s financial independence through education and employment.

The University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Social Equity Institute will research the program over the six-year period, assessing its effectiveness and whether the model could be replicated more broadly.

City of Melbourne Cr Andrew Rowse said the initiative reflected a form of innovation that was sometimes overlooked.

“When people think about innovation in a global city, they often think about universities, research institutions and technology companies,” Cr Rowse said.

“But some of our most important innovation happens in social enterprises that are innovating every day for public good.”

The program also strengthens Queen Victoria Market’s emerging role as a testing ground for social and environmental initiatives.

Last year, STREAT helped establish a Circular Economy Precinct at the market, recovering surplus food, trialling reusable packaging and supporting community education around waste reduction.

LikeWISE extends that approach beyond food waste and into employment and enterprise development, using the market’s high foot traffic and diverse mix of traders as a practical environment for collaboration.

Paul Ramsay Foundation head of systems change Josephine Khalil said the program recognised employment as a pathway to “economic dignity”.

“By helping Work Integration Social Enterprises strengthen their trading revenue while deepening their social impact, LikeWISE has the potential to generate valuable lessons for the sector,” she said.