Nundah Community Enterprises Co-operative (Nundah CEC) was formed in 1998 by eight long term unemployed people with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues. Their purpose is to provide employment to members with a disability. Nundah CEC currently have 25 working members in the Co-operative with a disability.

Since its inception the Co-op has established the following employment opportunities for its members-

• Maintaining household properties and small construction business
• Maintaining 30 local parks for Brisbane city council
• Operating a food van
• Maintaining 20 properties for main roads department
• Operating a cafe? and catering business
• Operating a number of micro-enterprises for members

The Co-op receives no government funding and meets 80% of its operating expenses through trade. However small grants assist with equipment and other overheads to help move towards sustainability.

New equipment and replacement of equipment is an ongoing issue for the Parks Crews. This need is exacerbated by the fact that the co-op tends to have a higher turnover of equipment due to disability issues of workers. These issues mainly include poor fine motor skills. The key objective of the grant is meaningful employment and working equipment is essential for providing meaningful employment in that it enables workers to do tasks correctly to maintain contracts.

In December 2017 the UCF Board received an application for a small grant to help with the purchase of equipment and brush cutters. Nundah CEC expect that the use of grant funds for new equipment with result in the continued employment of the six Parks I and four Parks II Crew workers with intellectual and mental health issues, for the continuing employment of a total of 10 workers.

The UCF Directors were happy to approve this application for $1,800 to purchase three Husqvarna model 525RS brush cutters (or equivalent) to enable Nundah CEC to continue this excellent service.