Our Impact 2023
Foreword
I am proud to present the Good Cycles impact snapshot 2023.
This year we chose to release this report on July 15 to coincide with World Youth Skills Day, a day the United Nations chose to recognise the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
2023 was another big year for us, where we celebrated our 10 year anniversary, increased our employees by 40%, moved into Sydney (and now Brisbane and the Gold Coast) with our Lime contract, and had a whopping 52 young people go through our Youth Employment Program (up 79% from 29 participants in 2022).
We did all this while redefining and structuring Good Cycles service offering through four new business divisions:
Good Spaces: Large scale green space and asset maintenance services.
Good Deliveries: Specialist inner-city deliveries, logistics and sustainability services delivered via e-bikes.
Good Bikes: Bike retail, corporate servicing and tailored micro-mobility services.
Good People: Specialist managed workforce partnerships (labour hire) with value-aligned partners.
These divisions are all supported by Good Cycles Central Services, our business units that help drive commercial success while delivering impact, safety and wellbeing to our staff and Youth Employment Program participants.
It’s tough out there, especially for young people facing barriers to employment. This snapshot touches on some challenges our young people face, however we know that young people thrive when given the right opportunities. We are striving to learn more, adapt and grow together.
Jaison Hoernel
Chief Executive Officer
Youth Employment Program
Our Youth Employment Program (YEP) uses a work-first approach, offering jobs to young people aged 18-28 with real income alongside tailored coaching and support.
Our ‘learn by doing’ approach is offered with personal choice and an inclusive workplace to deliver technical and transferable skills, which increases job-readiness and reduce barriers to employment.
SInce 2013, Good Cycles has provided employment and training pathways to more than 750 Young People.
Program Participants
Identified Barriers to Employment
Diversity of YEP participants
The Youth Employment Program builds foundations for participation and resilience.
Maintaining employment for six months is a significant milestone for people who have faced barriers to employment. Long term employment builds confidence, stability, and networks, enabling people to continue to overcome barriers and achieve their full potential.
of program participants maintained employment with Good Cycles for more than 6 months.
is the average employment of each YEP participant
Employee Outcomes
Research Findings
Our own research has highlighted the importance of quality jobs and supportive, inclusive workplaces for young people who are marginalised to find and remain engaged in work.
Young people want a decent wage and financial security to build savings, but also place value on non-economic benefits to employment such as social connection, the opportunity to learn and progress and the opportunity to work alongside diverse people.
Significantly, for young people working at Good Cycles, employment is more than “just having a job”. Young people also linked employment to having an increased awareness of the world around them and having a role in making a positive impact in their communities.
Luz's Story
Luz joined Good Cycles in 2021, after burning out in her previous job. Luz compares her previous employment to Good Cycles as being ‘like day and night’. She had experienced bullying, disrespect and instability with her rostered hours. After joining Good Cycles, Luz says she had to relearn her confidence to speak up and how to communicate with managers, teammates and the general public.
She has also learnt a lot about bikes! Growing up in Mexico, the most riding Luz had done was as a toddler in her house. With Good Cycles, she would eventually ride e-bikes for up to eight hours over a work shift, discovering new parts of the city and completing jobs such as taping bollards, bollard painting, grouting, car cleaning and path inspections. Today, she is a valued retail assistant in our bike shops and developing her bike mechanics skills.
“I enjoy being creative through problem solving, whether I’m in the store or outside doing asset maintenance on a path inspection. I would say I’m adaptable and I like to be welcoming, I like to make all people feel like they are welcome. I want to make people feel the way I felt.
At the moment I’m just going with it, just stay stable which is something that this job has helped with. I have started to think about something formal about what I want to do. I just really want to feel like how it feels to have a stable job and then figure it out from there.”
Nathan's Story
After leaving high school, Nathan was in a vicious cycle of inconsistent work and an unstable income. Determined to work and make himself more employable, he tried extra study and working in different industries, but Nathan’s struggles continued and he still faced barriers to employment. His life took a positive turn when he joined Good Cycles in our Good Spaces division.
Nathan has acquired new skills, certifications and more importantly, a sense of belonging. He added that his experience with his work team and his YEP coach has “provided him with a stable source of income and a sense of purpose and personal growth”.
Nathan’s dedication to his job has not gone unnoticed, with his reliability and positive attitude noted by all that work with him in the gardening team. His team members have seen growth in his communication and teamwork skills and have also witnessed his personal efforts to develop consistent routines. Through his commitment, Nathan has found independence, financial stability, and the means to “treat himself”.
“Working at Good Cycles has not only provided me with a stable source of income but also a sense of purpose and personal growth. I love my job with Good Cycles, it has allowed me to see myself in the future and gain the qualifications needed to get there.”
Impact and innovation throughout our services
Through a culture of innovation, partnerships and collaboration, we deliver services across four divisions, all ideal industries to grow our social and environmental impact and Youth Employment Program.
These divisions are supported by our Central Services team and an experienced and passionate Board. We actively work together with business partners to create opportunities within existing work and seek out new partners that understand the importance of breaking the employment barriers young people face.
YEP hours across Good Cycles
Our Good Deliveries division (previously known as City Services) set up home in our new Cremorne depot, using our fleet of e-cargo bikes to replace tasks that traditionally used utes or trucks, such as commercial asset maintenance, gardening, deliveries and organic waste management.
Our organic waste collection partnership with the City of Melbourne and Citywide grew further in 2023. With the city regaining pre-lockdown numbers, the increase in collectable food waste means collection shifts now operate every day with a lunchtime and evening shift.
With the support of local businesses, what started as a small trial of two venues has now expanded to 30 cafes and restaurants participating on a permanent roster, diverting an average of almost 25 tonnes a month.
In two years, the program diverted over 250 tonnes of food waste away from landfill, where it would have created methane as it decomposed, a greenhouse gas about 80 times more potent than CO2.
Our Good Spaces division (previously known as Open Spaces) expanded further in its second year. We provided gardening and landscaping services, litter removal, graffiti removal and asset maintenance and inspections for valued clients such as DM Roads, Fulton Hogan, Fire Rescue Victoria, Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust and Housing First, often incorporating a fleet of e-cargo bikes.
Our industrial grounds maintenance equipment grew substantially to cover even more work, including Land Pride slashers, reach arm mowers and edgers, herbicide spray units, a graffiti removal hot water unit and litter collection vehicles.
Through our newly created Good People division, we provide managed workforce partnerships to organisations that align with our own mission. We supply a tailored professional workforce that blends general staffing and young people who are supported through YEP.
We work with businesses with similar values to Good Cycles to help with their workforce needs, adding positive value to workplace cultures and inclusivity for people from marginalised groups.
Good Cycles has been operating a partnership with the Lime e-bike and scooter share scheme since 2020. We have provided their operational workforce of Operations Specialists and Mechanics for their Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney bases, which grew to approximately 60 staff in 2023.
Good Bikes
Through our Good Bikes team, we run our four retail workshops, run on-site bicycle servicing for corporates and special events, plus we are introducing a new shared e-bike hub leasing service for buildings and developments.
Purpose Precinct
Purpose Precinct is Australia’s first dedicated social enterprise precinct, located in the heart of Melbourne at the iconic Queen Victoria Market.
Selling homewares, clothing, food and gifts from over 50 exclusively Victorian businesses, Purpose Precinct raises awareness of the social, environmental and economic impact of social enterprises in our community.
The Purpose Precinct is a collaborative initiative of founding partners Good Cycles and STREAT. Both are social enterprises that contribute 100% of their profits to fulfil their respective missions to support young people experiencing barriers to employment.
Purpose Precinct has created 22 jobs for young people experiencing barriers to employment.
What's next?
We have already taken 2024 to new heights!
- Innovation Excellence Award winner at the 2024 Civil Contractors Federation Victoria People & Training Awards
- Visit from Federal Minister of Employment Tony Burke and local MP Peter Khalil to learn directly from four YEP participants
- Good Deliveries launches inner Melbourne delivery service using e-cargo bikes
- Good Cycles becomes a Specialized stockist
- Toolbox Sessions held for IDAHOBIT 2024
- We delivered FOGO bin liners to over 10,000 homes in the City of Melbourne
- Our partnership with Lime expanded to the Gold Coast
And we haven’t stopped there!
We pride ourselves on driving innovation into all our services, so we can deliver sustainable jobs of the future that aim to reduce barriers to employment. We see a future where all individuals have access to dignified and meaningful work, and where all businesses prioritise the wellbeing of their employees and the community at large.
Together we create Cycles of Change.
Partners & Stakeholders
Thank you to all our partners who help make this happen.
Do you want to partner with us?
We’re always looking to hear from new supporters & organisations interested in supporting social procurement and social enteprise.
Support Good Cycles
Good Cycles is a registered charity with the ACNC.
You can view our financial and annual reporting on the ACNC website.
