Ballarat Regional Industries (BRI) is preparing to create a new packaging area at its Walker Street site, providing more than 20 new jobs for people with disabilities in Ballarat, packing food-grade products. 

Established in 1984, BRI empowers those with disabilities through employment in a range of areas, including landscaping, event support, recycling and document destruction.

The grant came from the Percy Baxter Charitable Trust, which makes approximately $4.7 million worth of grants to Victorian charities and medical research annually.

Ballarat Regional Industries CEO Geoff Russell said the upgrade wouldn’t have been possible without the trust’s monetary support. He stated there was a increasing “need right now” for more employment for those with disabilities. 

“We’ve made a giant leap in those 35 years to get where we are now, this will take us forward for the next ten years and beyond,” he said. 

“It’s a significant piece of development for us. 

“It’ll also enable us to attract more packaging work to BRI and we’re hopeful that could be upwards of $800,000 to $1 million per year of extra income.”

It is hoped construction will be completed by July next year. BRI currently has around 165 people working across two sites, with enquiries from some of the Grampians region’s 4000 people with disabilities each day.

Each employee receives a plan, developed with a case worker and support person, outlining what they want to learn or achieve over 12 months.

“Path of our ethos with our employing people with a disability is to train and develop them for the possibility of working in open employment,” Mr Russell said. 

“We’re teaching them what the big wide world requires of people … for all intents and purposes it’s a normal workplace.”