A Beacon of hope

A social enterprise in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Beacon Laundry employs people facing barriers to employment, and it’s already the second largest employer in town. 

 

Washing linens for more than 80 hospitality clients might be its bread and butter, but Beacon Laundry, the groundbreaking venture from White Box Enterprises, has a mission to do much more.

 

A social enterprise, Beacon Laundry in Bangalow New South Wales employs people facing complex barriers to employment. Whether it’s people recovering from addiction, mental health challenges, re-integrating into the community after time spent incarcerated, or those from marginalised communities, Beacon aims to provide jobs with additional support for people who need it most.

 

“We make good business sense, and the Byron community has really embraced the social aspect as well,” says Luke Terry, Beacon Laundry founder and CEO of White Box Enterprises, a national organisation dedicated to creating and supporting jobs-focused social enterprises.

 

“Of the 196 people Beacon Laundry has employed so far, 70 percent have previously faced barriers to work. Take Terri: she’s in her 50s and has struggled with addiction and a major health issue. When she came to us 12 months ago, she couldn’t recall if she had a tax file number; this was her first real job. Today, she’s thriving.”

 

Beacon’s first client was Elements of Byron resort, and now it has more than 80 hospitality contracts, and is expected to process around 80,000 kilos of laundry each week during peak season. Celebrating Beacon’s first 12 months in business this year, Luke admits it was a milestone that at some stages looked as though it might never come.

 

“It’s one hell of a story,” he laughs. The story of Beacon began in 2019 with a phone call from business leader Richard Uechtritz, who saw the potential to replicate a model that Luke had successfully built in Toowoomba, but this time in the Byron region. Luke was game.

 

What followed was a multi-year rollercoaster of fundraising, council hurdles and financial gaps.

 

While things started off strong, COVID changed the landscape. Luke admits the project came close to collapse. “At one point I’d actually drafted the email to say it was over,” he says, reflecting on a moment when a $2 million funding gap threatened to derail everything.

 

Luckily, Luke says that thanks to “a number of people and foundations who were massively supportive of what we were trying to do,” Beacon opened its doors in April 2024 – an event Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended. In June 2024, a second site opened in southwest Adelaide, in partnership with Bedford Group.

 

“Beacon is made up of 70 percent of people who have barriers to employment, and we have a consistent waiting list, with 100 people on it. We’ve also had 34 transitions in the past year, which means people who have joined us have gone on to find outside employment or pursued further study, which is another part of our mission.”

 

Beacon Laundry, which has received a three-year grant from Westpac Foundation, is the perfect example of what Luke believes is a building block to a more equitable society. “The ultimate goal is to have social enterprises make up 10 percent of the nation’s employment and training system, which means that these businesses are getting paid for the support that they’re creating,” he says.

 

It’s one of the reasons why White Box, with support from the Westpac Foundation, has established the Social Enterprise Loan Fund (SELF), Australia’s first loan fund specifically designed for social enterprises supporting employment pathways.

 

“Today, there are a few things holding social enterprises back; access to finance is one of these. The SELF is designed to demonstrate what is possible if social enterprises can access patient, flexible loans. If we want to play a permanent role in the employment services system, we need a stronger presence in Australia and finance can help with this.”

 

“Westpac Foundation has been instrumental in getting the SELF up and running. It has deeply invested in strengthening jobs-focused social enterprise, at both a systems-change and grassroots level,” says Luke. “You can see this through the support both White Box and Beacon have received.”