About us

Founded in 2008 by Rose Farfalla, HappinessFirst started with traditional face-to-face counselling and consulting services to leading Australian businesses. 

Fast forward 10 years and HappinessFirst is now a leader in providing support and care options for people living with all abilities, their carers and family.

Rose Farfalla has one major goal – to “make getting quality and personalised support accessible and affordable for everyone”.  She herself has been through much adversity during her life; domestic violence, abusive marriage, separation, divorce, financial issues, multiple miscarriages, living in a blended family and, most recently, cancer.  Her resilience has enabled her to power on and live her ‘Best Life’, with her beautiful family on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia.

Now as a mother with a young child who has disabilities, this is no longer just her professional mission, but her life’s purpose.

“All my life’s experiences, both positive and negative, bring me here, as an advocate for all people, my focus is to be an advocate for people living with disabilities. My daughter is a part of this cohort – I want to see outstanding services on offer, I want to see amazing opportunities available and by far the most important is – I want to see inclusion, a community where WE all get to live our best lives, we all get to learn, grown, play, work and have fun together. Let’s create environments which support all people and all abilities”.  – Rose Farfalla, Mumma bear to a daughter with additional needs and Director of HappinessFirst.

Social enterprises are businesses that trade so they can:

• tackle social problems
• improve communities
• give people access to employment and training
• help the environment

There is no legal structure called ‘social enterprise’ in Australia. However, the Victorian Government defines social enterprises as organisations that:

• are driven by a public or community cause (social, environmental, cultural or economic)
• get most of their income from business trade, rather than from donations or grants
• use at least 50% of their profits to work towards their social mission

YES, we are.

Social Enterprises focus on offering meaningful employment and training opportunities for people living with disabilities through a range of business operations. These businesses provide a supported environment for people living with disabilities to develop their job skills and gain fair supported employment. 

HappinessFirst Rosebud Cafe, 1377 Point Nepean Rd, Rosebud VIC

HappinessFirst Mornington Library Cafe, Vancouver St, Mornington VIC

These are the criteria:

• Have an approved NDIS plan that includes funding in core supports
• Be of legal working age
• Be an Australian citizen residing in Victoria
• Hold a Disability Pension