What’s so exciting about the launch of our Purpose Precinct at Queen Victoria Market?
A group of Victoria’s social enterprises can now be found under one roof in Victoria’s first collaborative social enterprise store front. Lead by the team at Good Cycles, STREAT, and Social Enterprise Network Victoria (SENVIC), we spoke to the CEOs to find out what this means for business, and our sector? Watch the video, or read the transcript below.
We asked, why are you excited about the Purpose Precinct?
Jaison Hoernel, CEO at Good Cycles, said:
“I'm here at the Queen Victoria Market for the opening of the purpose precinct, which is a social enterprise precinct, selling goods from social enterprises across all of Victoria. Good Cycles is proud to be one of the founding partners to help get this up off the ground. We're super excited because not only will the precinct provide a huge number of jobs, and in the long-term help to revitalize Melbourne, but also I think through Queen Victoria Market, we’ll introduce so many new people to social enterprise, and the fantastic goods and services that are made here in Australia by Victorians.”
Nick Verginis, CEO at SENVIC, said:
“The Purpose Precinct is just the start of something much bigger. We're bringing together products created by social enterprises in Victoria and what this is showing straight away is that social enterprises are producing everything and anything, right here in Victoria. Being at the Queen Victoria Market is so exciting because this is the fourth most visited area in Melbourne. We have 1.3 million local to come to this each year and 1.4 million tourists coming here. This is a great chance to be a front door for the social enterprises right across the state.”
Rebecca Scott, CEO at STREAT, said:
“One of the things I'm really excited about is creating visibility for the sector. Because all of us are dotted across Victoria, we're often small little enterprises, but to show the public just kind of how many social enterprises are out there the diversity of our sector. Across Victoria, we employ over 60,000 people, so we're actually quite a big sector but we're scattered everywhere. So it's only when you bring us all together that you start to get a sense of the incredible kind of reach and impact of this sector. We can't wait for you to come and start doing a Christmas shopping here at the Purpose Precinct knowing that everything that you buy does good and green.”
This project wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Victorian Government, and all the hard-working teams that have worked together to make this happen.
The Purpose Precinct is at Shop 04, String Bean Alley, and is currently open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9am.
Social enterprise brands that are currently on sale in the Purpose Precinct include:
Clothing The Gaps, SisterWorks Inc., HoMie Clothing, Mildura Chocolate Co., STREAT, Deadly Wears, Kenshi Candles, Wilfulkindness, Good Cycles, Kakadu Plum Co., Buzz.Earth, UPmovement, Free to Feed, LoveLuvo, Cultivating Community Melbourne, Deadly Wears, Green Collect, Lime & Lemon, YMCA Rebuild.