Working for change owns and operates several nonprofit, Work Integration Social Enterprises. The social mandate of these small businesses is to provide supportive, stable, trauma informed employment for people with lived experience of mental health, addiction, homelessness, trauma, gender-based violence, incarceration, and refugee histories. These lived experiences often mean that people face chronic and persistent challenges in accessing work which plunges them into poverty. Research shows that people with severe mental illness experience between 70-90% rates of unemployment. We help to address this. Revenue from our social enterprises go directly into staff wages and supports. Through access to work, people are able to move slowly into more independent and dignified living, relying less and less on systems supports such as shelters, Emergency Rooms and food banks. Our enterprises operate in two areas: Food Services and Landscaping/Horticulture.