Social Enterprise Australia

Save the date! We are partnering with our friends at White Box Enterprises to deliver the Social Enterprise Jobs Summit - Australia’s first-ever conference dedicated to jobs-focused social enterprises. When: 11-12 June 2025 Where: Melbourne University The summit will bring together jobs-focused social enterprises, intermediaries, government and philanthropy, to strengthen relationships, collaborate, problem-solve, learn from each other - and build common ground to shift systems, for a future where all have access to decent work. More details will come in 2025. For now, mark your diaries and register your interest here: https://lnkd.in/g9pzAj8s

Our sector is diverse, full of passionate people, and rich with lived and learned experience. In this context we asked what is needed to contribute to collaborative knowledge, culture and capability-development of the social enterprise sector at this moment in time? The views of hundreds of people who responded to our ask have shaped four different types of learning communities, commissioned by Social Enterprise Australia as part of the Australian Government's Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI). At the end of a rigorous EOI process, we are excited to update on this work, and share some of the themes and ideas to be explored through learning communities: https://lnkd.in/gpRth7ah

Some incredible insights from 2025 QLD Australian of the Year Geoffrey Smith as he shares how Australian Spatial Analytics started with a mission to change a statistic, then went on to solve an economic problem and show what's possible by harnessing the strengths of young neurodivergent minds.

Opportunity for jobs-focused social enterprises: Today the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations released more details about its $21.9 million WorkFoundations program which will fund social enterprises and other businesses that assist people with complex barriers to work, and pay real wages. This package is a big win for the social enterprise sector, and those most disadvantaged in the labour market. An open-competitive grant round will open on 14 January 2025 and close on 11 February 2025, with a grant pool of up to $10 million available. Grant activities will commence from 1 July 2025. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ggW4nNYq

Jobs-focused or work integration social enterprises (WISEs) exist to provide employment opportunities for those who are most shut-out of work. They are a proven way to unlock sustainable employment outcomes for the most disadvantaged people, groups and places. Australia needs WISEs and their innovative approach, but systemic challenges have stifled their ability to scale, despite the public value they create.  WISEs incur costs that standard businesses do not; costs to deliver impact. These are called Impact Costs. Not being able to recoup their Impact Costs - to be paid for the public value and savings they create - has hampered WISEs’ ability to sustain, scale, and maximise the role they play. Now is the time to change this. This submission to the Australian Government outlines how this can be addressed to unlock greater economic inclusion. It was put together by the WISE Hub; a collaboration that seeks to grow government understanding, support and funding, unlock private investment and connect those working in the WISEs to evolve leading practice and work towards shared goals. WISE Hub members include Kate Barrelle from STREAT, Cindy Carpenter from The Bread & Butter Project, Mark Daniels from White Box Enterprises, Lisa Fowkes from Social Ventures Australia, Sally McGeoch from Westpac Foundation, Fiona Jose from Cape York Partnership, Matt Knopp from Paul Ramsay Foundation, and Jess Moore from Social Enterprise Australia. Read the submission here: https://lnkd.in/gtCu9Auc Images from Bama Services, an Indigenous-owned and award-winning social enterprise and entity of Cape York Partnership, providing employment opportunities in civil construction, building, landscaping and facilities, and asset maintenance.

So much heart and passion in the room at this event! Each one of the #2024TomorrowMakers saw a need, and stepped in to meet that need with a bold, innovative idea. And each of these social entrepreneurs has a story of the heart behind their idea, from People's Choice winner Brodie Germaine who draws on his own experience as a young person in Mount Isa to give others a sense of belonging and purpose through connection to Country and physical fitness, to Luke Anderson who makes prison-compliant clothing and creates opportunities for ex-inmates because he's been there, to Laura Greaves OAM who started Muddy Cuddles animal assistance therapy based on the experience of her foster daughter. Huge congrats to all 13 SPARK Tomorrow Makers and to AMP Foundation and Impact Boom for getting behind them 🙌 More on the 2024 Tomorrow Makers here: https://lnkd.in/ghju-Bje Nicola Stokes GAICD Lucy Watson Tom Allen

Guest speakers announced for this Friday's open learning event: First Nations Principles for Social Enterprise Development. Shifting Ground co-founders Dr Lilly Brown and Genevieve Grieves will be joined by agents of social change representing a cross-section of First Nations social enterprises and businesses. They are: Rona Glynn-McDonald, Kaytetye, Co-founder and Director of First Nations Futures, Founder of Common Ground Dr Blaze Kwaymullina, Palyku, Chairman of Emu Nest Investment Group Prof. Deen Sanders OAM, Worimi, Lead Partner, Deloitte Integrity. This interactive webinar is for anyone interested in social enterprise as a way of doing good for people, place and planet and will explore the principle: "If you can get right what you do in relation to First Nations people, your work with all people and communities will benefit." Event details: Title: First Nations Principles for Social Enterprise Development Date and time: Friday 29 November, 12:00pm AEDT Duration: 90 minutes Location: Online via Zoom link Shifting Ground is an Aboriginal-owned and women-led enterprise that supports organisations and individuals to change and strengthen the way they work in relation to First Nations people. This free event is the first in a series of open learning events hosted by Social Enterprise Australia and funded under the Australian Government’s Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI). We can’t wait to see you there! Book your place now: https://lnkd.in/g--gUMC5 Image: Still from NGURRAWAANA, a GARUWA production for Juluwarlu Art Group. Image credit: James Evans.

Today on World Social Enterprise Day we celebrate the incredible work and impact of all social enterprises - transforming lives, rebuilding communities, ensuring no harm to the planet and creating an economy for all. We love this story that shows what's possible when social enterprises join together to grow and innovate... More than 100 Victorian social enterprises have now been part of the Purpose Precinct, an Australian-first initiative that brings together social enterprises across multiple spaces at Melbourne’s iconic Queen Victoria Market and beyond. The precinct nurtures ideas and innovation, providing opportunity for social enterprises to retail on site, launch new products, kickstart new businesses, or take part in state-wide incubation and enterprise development.   Alongside multiple retail and activation spaces, and a cafe by social enterprise STREAT, the precinct includes the Moving Feast Kitchen, bringing innovation to solving the problem of food waste. The kitchen works with market stallholders to divert overripe or undersold produce for resale as long shelf-life products, with a 98% success rate.   Moving Feast Eco-Chefs Chris Locke and Fernando Minervini experiment with discarded bread to come up with two solutions - high-quality ‘bread-waste pasta’ with eggs and flour added, and traditional Armenian lavosh crackers. In other innovations, overripe mangoes become mango hot sauce and kombucha. Old sweet potatoes are transformed into sweet potato miso and shoyu, sold in the precinct and served at the STREAT cafe.   “There’s a beautiful simplicity in re-diverting food that doesn’t have to go into the ground,” says STREAT Deputy CEO Elise Bennetts, who works in the kitchen.   “There are so many issues in our food systems and so much food insecurity. Farmers struggle to grow food, only to see it go back into the ground. We can’t feed the whole state but we can solve small problems in different ways, and pilot something that can potentially be scaled. There is huge potential here.”   Launched in late 2022 by Good Cycles and STREAT with support from SENVIC Social Enterprise Network Victoria and funded through the Victorian Government’s Social Enterprise Strategy, the Purpose Precinct has a dual focus on the circular economy and providing on and off-site employment and training pathways for disadvantaged jobseekers facing multiple barriers to finding work.   Read more about the precinct here: https://lnkd.in/guPzG7nn Moving Feast Victoria Llawela Forrest Rebecca Scott, OAM #SocialEnterprise #SocialEnterpriseDay

Around the world there is a growing number of enterprises that put people and planet first. These enterprises are not just transforming lives, they’re rebuilding communities and ensuring their products, services and supply chains don’t harm the planet. Together, and alongside buyers and advocates, they’re building an economy for all. This week is People and Planet First Week. Whether you’re a business owner, a conscious consumer or an advocate for a better world, this week offers opportunities to join conversations, discover, celebrate and support social enterprises, and to be part of building a global economy fit for all of humanity and nature. Find out ways to get involved here: https://lnkd.in/eew_Ghnp #socialenterprise