MADCOW gardening is a tenant on the grounds of the Junortoun Campus of Bendigo Baptist Church. As part of our tenancy agreement, we maintain the church grounds and manage the resulting green waste. We provide training for our employees to build their skills and improve their employment pathways. The majority of our employees are Karen ...
Bendigo Baptist Community Care
MADCOW Gardening Green Waste Management

GOAL
$15,000
Field of Interest
- Community and economic development
- Housing and homelessness
Target Population
- Asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and people from CALD backgrounds
- People experiencing or at risk of homelessness
MADCOW is an initiative of Bendigo Baptist Community Care Inc., a self-funded, registered, social enterprise charity. MADCOW stands for Make A Difference, Change our World. We exist to break the cycle of generational injustice and to help prevent family breakdown and homelessness. The profits from our Community Services support our homeless services in the heart of Bendigo.
COVID devastated our community centre and overwhelmed our support services. Witnessing the neglect of those on the street during this period, we moved our attentions to purely homeless services.
Our organisation is in a unique position to address the identified issues/problems because we have been working with this cohort for many years and have successfully piloted this model for the last three years. There are no other services in Bendigo which focus on the homeless in this way.
The sustainability of this model is already proven. We currently fund the pilot project ourselves and are committed to fund the program on an ongoing basis. Our concept has the support of The City of Greater Bendigo which has provided relevant planning approvals. This exciting model will help Bendigo’s most marginalised group.
We work very closely with Haven Home Safe Outreach team and the Bendigo Winter Night Shelter. We have also been working with The Salvation Army, Bendigo Health and La Trobe dental services. We have become a hub for homeless services in Bendigo.
Project Summary
MADCOW gardening is a tenant on the grounds of the Junortoun Campus of Bendigo Baptist Church. As part of our tenancy agreement, we maintain the church grounds and manage the resulting green waste.
We provide training for our employees to build their skills and improve their employment pathways. The majority of our employees are Karen refugees. The skills our employees learn, including workplace health and safety, safe use of equipment and green waste management, are fully transferable to other fields of employment.
We require a new tractor to replace our current one, which no longer meets workplace safety standards. The new tractor would be used for mowing and green waste manual handling, such as tree moving and mulching material from the Junortoun property, as well as managing the green waste from our gardening service’s clients. We mulch as much of the green waste as we can and the tractor will enable us to manage this waste more efficiently and effectively.
Project Outcomes
The immediate expected outcome of the project is the management of the Junortoun site in a safe and timely manner.
The project will also enable us to improve our waste management arm, particularly in relation to manual handling. We currently maintain 14 acres at the Junortoun site and the new tractor will enable us to manage more of the green waste faster and turn it into quality mulch which can be used on the garden beds at the site.
Staff will be trained in the operation of the new equipment, which will create opportunities for future employment pathways.
The new tractor will provide opportunity for future ventures, such as a community garden at the Junortoun site. Future business ventures will also create further employment opportunities for refugees.
All profits from our gardening enterprise go back into supporting our homeless services in Bendigo, so any growth in our business has another positive flow-on effect.
We will manage the ongoing running costs for the tractor, training of staff, etc., in-house. The project expenses are to cover the cost of purchasing the tractor.
MADCOW has a strong history of using small seeding funding to expand our enterprises.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $30,250
FUNDING
Funding source | Amount |
---|---|
Profit from MADCOW Community Enterprises (confirmed) | $15,250 |
Funding gap (unconfirmed) | $15,000 |
EXPENSES
Expense item | Amount |
---|---|
Tractor | $30,250 |
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