Lived experience to social enterprise
What family violence, a psychiatric ward and two years in recovery taught me about workplaces that actually work for people the system gave up on.
Rick Cohen
I am an
Access, not effort.
I built Worthy Cause, a Melbourne social enterprise that funds real, paid jobs. I speak about the lived experience behind it, and the gap nobody funds: keeping people in work.
Experienced charity founder
Social entrepreneur
Thought leader, speaker, and mentor
Fun and great to be around
As featured in
Press, broadcast and podcasts
The access model
Worthy Cause exists because access has been the missing piece, not effort. Five layers. One operation. A person with a real job at the centre of all of it.
- Paid Work Dignified employment from week one. Above-award wages. No symbolic roles.
- Structured Training 26-week program. Individualised hours. Three-hour kitchen trial in onboarding.
- Hospitality Space Real kitchens and cafes. Environments designed for dignity, repetition and care.
- Wraparound Support Referral partnerships with Workskil, WISE Employment and Mind Australia. Mental health-aware management.
- Product People Want to Buy Cookies and coffee as the earned-revenue engine. The product funds the program. Both have to be excellent.
What I am building now
Worthy Courses
Worthy Cause proved that the right support changes what people believe they are capable of. Worthy Courses is how I take that to scale: an online employability platform for young Australians aged 14 to 24, written in plain language, grounded in Australian workplace law, and built so every paid course funds a free place for someone who needs it. Get the Job. Keep the Job.
What audiences hear
A founder who has lived through severe trauma, family violence and a mental health collapse, and who turned that into a paid employment program now backed by Australian Unity, The Funding Network, Burgmann College and the AMP Foundation. A compassionate operator: direct, human, mission-led and relentlessly practical. Every talk lands on something the room can do differently next Monday.
The skills that keep people in work
We spend a fortune getting people into jobs and almost nothing keeping them there. Communication, interpersonal skills, financial literacy and above all confidence: the curriculum no one owns.
From one life at a time to scale
Worthy Cause changes about 30 lives a year, and it is expensive. The honest question I keep asking on stage: how do you take what works for one person and make it reach the thousands the system never gets to?
Recent and notable
Impact Boom Episode 557
The fullest podcast account of the trauma-to-purpose arc and the vibe-check decision filter (April 2025).
Australian Unity Enduring Grant
$75,000 per year, 2025 to 2027, to fund the paid training program.
The Funding Network 2024
$50,000 raised, wages funded for 15 participants, six of seven completers moved into employment.
Three ways to work together
If you're hiring a speaker
Keynote, panel, fireside or workshop on inclusive employment, lived experience and the access-to-opportunity model.
If you're hiring a consultant
I work inside your social enterprise, impact business, charity or ESG function: innovation, legal structure, business development, AI, work integration and social entrepreneurship.
If you're hiring an operator
Productised offers: inclusive procurement audits, WISE program design, founder advisory.
Latest writing
Pillar 3
2,980 cookies. Sixteen hours. One thing I got wrong.
The bake-a-thon raised over $35,000 in two days. It also showed me exactly where the operation was still fragile.
Pillar 4
Six ingredients. We don't have anywhere to hide.
Why Worthy Cause is in cookies and cafes rather than white papers. The design logic behind food as the vehicle for dignified employment.
Pillar 5
The 550,000 Australians we don't talk about
The economic case for inclusive employment. The $20k-to-$50k flip, the tax return, and the question policy makers keep avoiding.