Community services provider 4GR was a finalist in the Micro Business 1-3 Employees and Best First Year categories at this year’s Powercor Geelong Business Excellence Awards.
The business began on 1 August 2013 as the culmination of three years of planning and developing.
The directors, Beth Evans and Gillian Baldwin, met while working together delivering certified training to adults with a disability.
Beth and Gillian saw an opportunity to really make a difference in the disability area, to work with vulnerable people and open up for them the kind of opportunities their mainstream peers took for granted.
4GR is a unique service provider working in the niche market of helping teenagers with a disability to access part-time or casual work in a mainstream environment to fit in with their school commitments.
In 2015 4GR became a registered disability services provider, working with National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) clients in the Barwon region.
Using a satellite site in Geelong, 4GR delivers classroom teaching at a community space in Herne Hill’s Western Heights Uniting Church.
The business strives weekly to achieve its vision of ‘Transformation through Innovation’.
4GR seeks to transform clients, building their confidence and abilities by working to champion and promote accessible and equitable workplaces.
Students are supported through an individualised program with the end goal being access to work. The business works with both the student and the employer, supporting each of them through the journey to employment and independence.
Both mothers, Beth and Gillian explain that 4GR stands for the “four good reasons“ that motivated them to follow their dream and show their children that “sometimes you have to put yourself out there and give it a go“.
