Jacquie Murphy

Clean Force Property Services

Clean Force managers, Jim Dinuccio and Paul Fraser, started Clean Force in 2001 with a vision to create sustainable award-wage employment opportunities for people with mental illness. With perseverance and a merger in 2005 with WISE Employment, the enterprise continued to evolve and Clean Force today is a financially self-sufficient, successful social enterprise. Parent company, WISE Employment, an Australian not-for-profit employment services provider, was established in 1992 to assist people with disabilities into employment. WISE currently delivers the DES (Disability Employment Services) and jobactive Australian Government employment contracts, whilst operating three social enterprises: Clean Force Property Services (Victoria & NSW), Incito Maintenance (VIC) and ELS (Tasmania). These social enterprises provide commercially viable services and produce employment opportunities to allow people from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter the workforce. Clean Force has a blended workforce with approximately 50% employees diagnosed with disability. Of these employees, 50% have persistent and/or severe mental illness, of which 55% have psychosis-based conditions e.g. schizophrenia. Clean Force also encourages staff who identify among the following groups: -new arrivals (including recently settled refugees) -people receiving welfare benefits -those living in social housing -other part-time cleaning professionals Additionally, 19% of the workforce is from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Clean Force offers varied pathways into employment: -supported employment program for people on Disability Support Pension with major vocational barriers, accessible also via NDIS funding -open employment stream for disadvantaged people wanting to enter into the general work force