More than 46,000 Australian women experience homelessness every night without safe or secure housing. And we know the largest causes of homelessness in Australia are domestic violence and family violence, which overwhelmingly affects women and children. Eleven years ago, The Big Issue saw an urgent need to expand our social enterprises and provide safe, female-friendly employment opportunities to women.
The Women’s Subscription Enterprise was established in 2010 to meet this need and began by providing employment opportunities to women experiencing marginalisation and disadvantage through packing and sending subscription copies of The Big Issue magazine.
Women are employed by The Big Issue to pack magazines for distribution to subscribers every fortnight, giving them an income as well as access to training, mentoring and support.
This enterprise exists as part of our Women’s Workforce program, with many women employed to work across both subscription and procurement categories.
The Women’s Subscription Enterprise was launched in 2010 and operates in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. More than 190 women have been employed to pack more than 800,000 magazines for subscribers.
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“Today I received my first Big Issue in the post! Now that I am not travelling into the city each day for work, I have missed seeing the vendors and catching up on the latest issues. It has been wonderful to spend my lunchtime sitting in the sun and absorbing the varied and interesting articles” – The Big Issue Subscriber
Becoming part of The Women’s Subscription Enterprise
Each woman employed by The Women’s Subscription Enterprise is proudly working to positively change their lives.
If you are interested in becoming part of The Women’s Subscription Enterprise please click here to learn more and get in touch.
800,000 Magazines Packed
$700,000 Earned By Employees
180 Women Employed