70s
Since our early days as a charity in the 1970s, our mission has remained the same – to empower people in our community who are living with disability or disadvantage.
Outlook was originally known as Minibah, which means home of the teacher. Minibah was established in 1975 in response to local families who had lobbied for services. Five acres of land in Pakenham, Victoria were acquired to establish a school for people with intellectual disability.
Minibah was established as a registered charity and funded by the Department of Education and then Department of Human Services.
Minibah School opened its doors to 5 students and 2 teachers in May 1975 and 2 years later had 28 students. The Mothers Club formed in 1976 and was strongly influential in the fundraising and delivery of the schools needs until the early 1990’s.
80s
There was a need to begin support for school leavers and young adults with disability and a new wing was added to the school building and in May 1980 the Minibah Adult Activity Unit opened.
In 1987 Tony Fitzgerald commenced as the Director, and 29 years later resigned as Outlook’s CEO. Tony was instrumental in shaping the organisation across three decades.
90s
The school closed in 1990 and began to refashion itself as the social enterprise we know today. Over 1990-91, the school integrated its students into the mainstream education system, with some of the over 18-year-old students moving into the Adult Activity Unit.
The Disability Services Act was established in 1991 that set out Human Rights Principles that applied to people with a disability. By this time, the Minibah Activity Unit had three key program areas; Independent living skills, supported employment and individual needs support, later becoming known as the Adult Training & Support Service.
In 1993, Minibah Nursery commenced and a donation by the Fialla Family saw the nursery expand to include potting sheds and hothouses and later open as a retail plant nursery to the public.
Minibah’s Federally funded Employment Service commenced in 1994 and placed people with a disability into open employment, later changing its name to Momentum Personnel.
Opportunities in open & supported employment grew and Minibah secured a contract with Berwick City Council for recycling metal & glass at the old Berwick tip site. In 1997, Minibah secured a contract to build and deliver a new recycling transfer station in Hampton Park, further cementing Minibah’s footprint in the recycling industry and its future in social enterprise.
In 1999 Minibah was amongst the first disability service providers across Australia to gain Quality Assurance Certification ISO9002:1994.
00s
By 2000 Minibah adult services had over 80% of its activities operating in community settings, with an intent to move away from isolated centre-based services delivery. In the same year Minibah Employment Service was ranked as one of the top 50 employment services in Australia.
In 2001, Minibah secured a contract with Darebin Council to operate and upgrade its recycling transfer station. This year, Minibah had also included the Environmental Certification ISO 14000 and the following year, Minibah Environmental won the contract to manage the Pakenham Transfer Station.
Minibah was funded to deliver a Respite & Leisure Service in 2002, providing holidays and outings in the community. The Minibah Foundation was established in 2003 and Minibah Employment Service was amongst the first in Australia to meet Commonwealth Disability Standards.
In 2004, with 124 staff & a budget of 3.6ml, Minibah became Outlook, with the Vision that ‘Outlook inspires fully inclusive communities.’
The Outlook volunteer service commenced in 2004, bringing in the vast value of volunteers to the organisation and also supporting people with a disability to be volunteers in their community.
In 2005, Outlook commenced as an RTO delivering certificates in retail, warehousing and nursery and Outlook Community Centre opened the following year.
10s
In 2011 following the Federal elections Outlook secured $3.2ml to build a new community hub, demolishing the nearly 40 year old original old building. In February, this same year Outlooks buildings were flooded by Toomuc Creek, and many of the buildings were destroyed by over a metre of flood water. Outlook purchased a house behind Outlook, in Mill St and operated its head office from this building until the new facility was built in 2014. The house and land was sold to Beaconhills College in 2014.
In 2018 Outlook commenced supporting its disability services participants to transition over the next two years to the new National disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). All government ‘block funding’ ceased to service providers.
2019 Outlook secured Melton Recycling & Transfer Station contract.
20s
The 2020s have been a period of significant growth for Outlook with the expansion of our social enterprise into Central Queensland. Outlook commenced waste management and resource recovery on behalf of Banana Shire, Central Highlands Regional Council and Livingstone Shire Council.
In October 2022, Outlook acquired Accuro Homecare on the NSW South Coast, completing the staged transition in October 2024 when Accuro adopted Outlook branding and both organisation’s websites were amalgamated into one. Outlook’s NSW homecare and domestic support services will continue under the Accuro program name for the short term.
In November 2023, Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme was rolled out across the state, providing a new social enterprise opportunity for Outlook. Partnering with approved providers Tomra Cleanaway and Visy, Outlook began operation of two CDSVic depots in Bayswater and Ravenhall, as well as a fleet of reverse vending machine (RVM) cleaners from both sites. In August 2024, the Ravenhall depot was handed over to an external provider, allowing Outlook to focus resources on RVM cleaning in the area as well as the Bayswater site.
