World Wellness Group is a multicultural health and wellbeing clinic located in Stones Corner who believe that everyone has a right to accessible and appropriate health care regardless of who they are. Their vision is to build health equity in the Australian health system. As a social enterprise, World Wellness Group uses the funds generated from conducting regular GP sessions and a range of fee for service programs and services to the general community to subsidise the costs of providing culturally responsive health and wellbeing services to disadvantaged migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum who don’t have access to Medicare.
Details of Support
In 2014, the English Family Foundation funded World Wellness Group to focus on two key sustainability mechanisms to ensure the ongoing viability of their clinic: the development of a three-year business plan and building and supporting the health practitioner network through clinical governance and administrative processes.
More recently, World Wellness Group received English Family Foundation funding to scale their operations to reach the growing demand for their services across SE QLD. This included the integration of a high quality e-health system in order to conduct tele-health sessions to people living in remote areas who are unable to come into Brisbane for treatment, the consolidation of their health data analytics to support their advocacy for more inclusive policy and better outcomes for refugees and at-risk migrants, and a targeted marketing campaign to attract more fee-paying clientele to their clinic (thereby bolstering their ability to provide free healthcare to more refugees and asylum seekers).
Impact
Since 2014, World Wellness Group has provided appointments and group sessions to over 3,500 people from vulnerable population groups. Their pay-it-forward model enables their 30 healthcare practitioners to provide essential treatment and wellbeing services to those who cannot afford to pay – many of whom who have complex health and mental health conditions. Their culturally tailored health promotion and prevention programs such as physical exercise programs also give otherwise isolated families the chance to engage with the broader community.
Why did we pursue this partnership?
This ground-breaking social enterprise is filling a significant void in healthcare within QLD. They focus on sustainable strategies to improve and expand their services to better support their vulnerable clients, now and into the longer term. It’s a smart, sustainable model with big heart.
What have we learned?
Philanthropy and the non-profit sector can work in partnership to create change where government can’t, or is unable to.