Design for Wellbeing: A Social Enterprise Story

This platform resource highlights findings from two Australian Research Council-funded studies exploring how Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) positively impact individuals and communities, particularly in disadvantaged and regional settings. It focuses on designing wellbeing into social enterprise workplaces and practices. Key findings include:  

1. Wellbeing in regional cities:  

• Social enterprises enable disadvantaged individuals to achieve personal wellbeing and contribute to community capacity-building.
• Visual mapping tools reveal how intangible assets, such as social capital and wellbeing, grow within communities.

2. Improving health equity for young people:

• WISEs influence the social determinants of health (SDOH), positively impacting young people’s wellbeing through supportive organisational practices.
• Policy, industry norms, and organisational design are critical to fostering conditions for youth health equity.

This resource provides tools and insights for social enterprises, policymakers, and ecosystem supporters to integrate wellbeing principles into workplace design and operations. It demonstrates how WISE can address systemic disadvantage while enhancing individual and community resilience.