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Community enterprise businesses bring social benefits

A young woman making coffee at the Eaglehawk Hub milk bar, where she was trained Community enterprises are businesses with a social purpose. Any profit that is made goes towards the business’s social objectives. Social objectives can include:

creating local jobs and training

providing services for people with a disability

maintaining a community asset (like a park or a community hall)

Community enterprises are geared towards social benefits as well as engaging in business. This makes generating positive social outcomes as important as sound business practice. They generally have long term goals and need to be financially viable to make sure these goals are reached. For this reason, understanding and using business principles and practices is an essential element.

The Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) encourages the development of community enterprises because they play an important part in building stronger and more connected communities. This in turn creates communities where people feel safer, have better health and improved employment opportunities.

The Victorian Government is supporting a number of new and existing community enterprises. Funding goes towards ongoing and new enterprise initiatives as well as the development and management of an enterprise network. Support is also being provided to a national Community Enterprise conference in 2009.

Find out more about community enterprises:

Read about how community enterprises are making a difference to communities

Download the Community Enterprise Resource Kit, created by the Brotherhood of St Laurence with support from DPCD

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