If you've been pushed out, if your industry is gone and "reinvent yourself at 58" is a bad joke, if your callback rate is zero and your dignity is taking a hit — that is not a moral failing. It is what happens when an economy moves faster than the people in it. Soft Landing is for you.
Most "reskilling" advice is hope-as-product. Learn AI, take this bootcamp, refresh your resume, network harder. For some people, that works. For a lot of people, it doesn't — and being told it should is its own kind of harm.
Soft Landing is for the people the other two pathways don't serve. People in their late fifties and sixties who are being quietly shown the door. People in their late twenties whose skills haven't been useful for three years and who are running out of confidence. People with health issues, caring responsibilities, learning differences, or just plain bad luck.
Our job is to make sure you have a map, a community, a sense of purpose, and a place to go. The companies that are causing the disruption fund the landing. The government burden shrinks. You keep your dignity.
The mission, in one sentence: Every person we catch, support and keep active is one less person whose life is quietly falling apart.
A roadmap to walk, a community to walk with, a circle of people who get it, and a physical place to be active and matter.
Six modules, self-paced. Where you stand financially. How the system actually works — Centrelink, redundancy, super early access, the lot. What's coming with AI and welfare. Who you are beyond your job. Your new map. Practical, plainly written, no patronising.
A private space — not Facebook, not LinkedIn — for people walking the same path. Monthly Q&A with experts: financial counsellors, psychologists, social workers, policy researchers. Real updates on policy changes. People who don't need it explained.
Regular, local, 90 minutes — the AA model. Check-in, structured topic (Centrelink, identity, mental health, what UBI means), a guest expert each month, peer support. Starting in Melbourne. Run from community halls, libraries, neighbourhood houses.
The long-term vision. A community cafe, workshop, kitchen, garden — somewhere to go, something to do, people to be with. Men's Sheds meets STREAT meets a neighbourhood centre. Phase 2-3 of the build. Funded by corporate sponsors and social-enterprise grants.
40s, 50s, 60s. Twenty or thirty years in one industry, identity wrapped up in work, pushed into "early retirement" before they were ready.
Mid-20s to mid-30s. Capable, willing, but their existing skills are exactly what AI is eating: admin, customer service, retail, basic clerical.
Mid-30s to 50s. Capable, mid-career, often well-reviewed — and made redundant because AI shrank the team around them. The work still needs doing. It just doesn't need as many hands.
Sole traders, contractors, creatives. Graphic designers, copywriters, virtual assistants, junior developers, voice-over artists. Their clients started doing the work with AI and the calls stopped coming.
Mostly women returning after 3–10 years out — parental leave, caring for ageing parents, their own health. Not old, often well-educated. The field they left has restructured around AI in ways nobody could track from outside.
The honest answer matters here. We don't charge participants. The funding model is built so that for the person in the seat, this is free.
Companies making people redundant pay $300–$2,000 per person for the transition package. Cheaper than traditional outplacement. Better PR, real impact.
SEDI (Social Enterprise Development Initiative): $11.6M federal funding running through 2026-27, $120K per enterprise. Plus City of Melbourne and Queensland social enterprise grants.
Every enterprise training contract includes a "social impact contribution" — 5-10% of contract value goes into Soft Landing. Built into the invoice.
The quiz takes five minutes and asks honest questions. If Soft Landing fits, we'll be in touch about the first Melbourne Circle meetup and the online course. Free.
Take the quiz