FRIDAY 13 JUNE 2014 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED WINNERS INDICATE A SECTOR GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH Last night Social Traders announced the winners of the second annual Social Enterprise Awards. The winners encompass small and big players in the sector, including some social enterprises that are well known and others to watch as they grow. Social Traders and PwC hosted the 2014 Australian Social Enterprise Awards at a cocktail event in Southbank, Melbourne. Senator The Hon. Mitch Fifield attended and spoke about the importance of social enterprise in complementing the government policy and practice for supporting social services. Senator Fifield then presented the Social Enterprise of The Year Award Large on behalf of the Australian Government, Department of Social Services. The 2014 Social Enterprises Awards winners are from across Australia and they generate a broad range of social impact in a variety of community settings. All winners were commended by the judging panel for their strong business models. Winners were judged not only on their impact but their ability to demonstrate leadership in the sector and good governance. Social enterprises use the power of the market place to solve the most pressing societal problems. They are businesses that exist primarily to benefit the public and the community, rather than their shareholders and owners. Social enterprises are commercially viable businesses with a purpose of generating social impact. 2013 Youth-led Award winners Thankyou Group have again come away with a trophy, winning the Social Innovation Award, underlining the impressive business that Dan Flynn and his team have built. Overcoming barriers to sustainable employment was a strong theme across the 2014 short list. This shone through to the winners with three organisations working towards increased employment opportunities for the disadvantaged. This includes Buy Social Award winner, City of Gold Coast, as the best institutional buyer. 2014 s new category, Social Investment of the Year Award, recognised a truly innovative deal in the combined investment of Social Ventures Australia, Social Traders and cohealth to launch the Integrated Medical Clinic. About the Social Enterprise Awards Social Traders developed the Awards to recognise the impact of individual organisations contributing solutions to the community s most difficult challenges, and to celebrate the breadth of talent and innovative thinking behind their development. The 2014 Social Enterprise Awards received 87 applications across the six categories. From a shortlist of 23, each category was assessed by a unique panel of sector experts to award the winners. THE 2014 AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AWARD WINNERS: Note: Case studies are listed for all winners as appendices on following pages. SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR (SMALL) Presented by: PwC PRIZE: $5,000 SEED Parks and Property Maintenance (SEED PPM) employs previously long-term unemployed people in North Brisbane to deliver commercial landscape maintenance, residential gardening and commercial cleaning services. (QLD)
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR (LARGE) Presented by: Australian Government, Department of Social Services PRIZE: $5,000 Clean Force Property Services is a commercial contract cleaning service providing employment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds including those with disability and mental illness. The social enterprise is a subsidiary of WISE Employment Ltd. (VIC) ONE-TO-WATCH AWARD Presented by: Australia Post PRIZE: $5,000 The 40K Group delivers training programs to Australian students and corporate organisations to operate more socially minded businesses. Profits from these programs are invested into delivery of education in India. (NSW) SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT AWARD *NEW IN 2014* Presented by: City of Melbourne PRIZE: Tickets, flights and accommodation to an international conference of your choice The Integrated Medical Clinic, investment by Social Ventures Australia, Social Traders and cohealth. (VIC) The Integrated Medical Clinic (TIMC) is a General Practice and allied health medical clinic owned by North Yarra Community Health (NYCH), a large not-for-profit community health centre based in Collingwood, Victoria. TIMC s profits will be used to subsidise free and below-cost community health services offered by NYCH. SOCIAL INNOVATION AWARD Presented by: Ian Potter Foundation PRIZE: Tickets, flights and accommodation to an international conference of your choice Thankyou Group (formerly Thankyou Water) was created to fund water, food, health and hygiene projects in developing nations. The Group derive their profits from the sale of bottled water, food and body care products in a range of retailers across Australia. (VIC) BUY SOCIAL AWARD Presented by: Social Traders Prize: Respect, love and gratitude The City of Gold Coast has developed a procurement strategy and implemented new processes to directly deliver social outcomes to their community. The social benefits provider procurement and buy-local procurement strategies harness the purchasing power of the Council to create hundreds of jobs in the Gold Coast area. (QLD) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: New Award category of Social Enterprise Investment for 2014 The Awards have been expanded in 2014 to include a new category of Social Enterprise Investment to pay tribute to the best investor deal in the Australian social enterprise sector. This new category compliments the 'Buy Social' Award and shines the light on those working the market for good and breaking down the barriers between business and community to grow a more responsible form of capitalism. 2
About Social Traders Social Traders mission is to nurture, develop and grow the social enterprise sector in Australia. Our work revolves around raising awareness of social enterprise, building enterprise capability, and opening markets for social enterprise products and services. More about Social Traders at: http://www.socialtraders.com.au/about-us MEDIA CONTACTS: Sophie O Halloran sophie.ohalloran@socialtraders.com.au 0488 748 000 Social Traders Sue-Ellen Gray sue-ellen.gray@socialtraders.com.au 0434 149 395 Social Traders AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AWARD WINNERS SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR SMALL Seed Parks and Property Maintenance (QLD) Steve Williams, Enterprise Director, 07 3269 1952 / 07 3869 1344 / 0422 718 850 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR LARGE Clean Force Property Services (VIC) Paul Fraser, Manager Clean Force Property Services, 03 8481 3000 / 0425 761 457 ONE-TO-WATCH AWARD 40K Group (NSW) Clary Castrission OAM, CEO, 0412 998 020 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT AWARD The Integrated Medical Clinic (VIC), with investment by Social Ventures Australia, Social Traders and cohealth. Social Ventures Australia - Alex Oppes; Manager, Impact Investing; 03 8688 0054 cohealth - Lyn Morgain, Transitional CEO, 0437 707 351 SOCIAL INNOVATION AWARD Thankyou (VIC) Daniel Flynn, Managing Director and Co-Founder, 0402 601 223
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR SMALL SEED PPM Growing jobs for Brisbane s unemployed. Who They Are SEED Parks and Property Maintenance (SEED) is a social enterprise that provides work for Brisbane s long-term unemployed. Operating as part of the community development organisation Sandbag Inc, SEED runs a business in commercial landscape maintenance, commercial cleaning and residential gardening, providing work for those who would otherwise face social exclusion. Vision SEED s vision is for a community where all people are included in economic, cultural and social life. The social enterprise believes in providing real work for real pay and offering the support people need to sustain employment. Through employment targeting marginalised people such as refugees and those living with mental illnesses or disabilities, SEED is steadily bringing its vision to life in an inclusive way that benefits everyone in the community. How it Works SEED has a broad network of customers, including Goodstart Early Learning, Brisbane City Council and Economic Development Queensland, who all use SEED s various services in commercial landscape maintenance, commercial cleaning and residential gardening services. To date it has created over 20,000 hours of employment and paid $500,000 in award wages to people who had previously been long term unemployed/marginalised. Many of SEED s employees are hired as a result of relationships Sandbag Inc holds in the wider community. This eradicates the need for a formal hiring process often a hurdle for the long-term unemployed. Employees have a flexible work commitment of between three and 38 hours per week depending on their individual needs and contracts. Some have gone on to secure employment in the private market, and some have started their own business a fine example of how SEED has genuinely helped them break the unemployment cycle. Looking Forward With its home base in Sandgate established, SEED is expanding throughout Brisbane and into the Gold Coast, securing more contracts and, in turn, more staff. The seed has been planted, and it has room for further growth. MEDIA CONTACT: Steve Williams, Enterprise Director, 07 3269 1952 / 07 3869 1344 / 0422 718 850 4
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR LARGE Clean Force Property Services A clean slate for people living with mental illness or intellectual disability. Who They Are Clean Force Property Services is a commercial cleaning company that provides jobs for people living with mental illness or intellectual disability. A subsidiary of WISE Employment, it is dedicated to delivering quality cleaning services to its customers while supporting its employees with training and coaching. Vision From humble beginnings with only one bucket, one mop and one cleaner, Clean Force has grown to deliver on its vision of empowerment through employment. Managers Jim Dinuccio and Paul Fraser started Clean Force in 2001 with the belief that Australians with disabilities deserve the opportunity to be employed and that the rest of Australia should have the opportunity to find out what they have to offer. The social enterprise is also strongly invested in changing misguided perceptions about the disadvantaged, sweeping away doubt about the potential inherent in all of us, regardless of background or current hardship. How it Works Boasting a wide range of customers including Telstra, Dallas Brooks Hall and the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Clean Force has over thirteen years employed over 200 staff members, all of whom have received coaching and support, and has generated and delivered more than $6.6 million in commercial cleaning. Over this period, more than 30 employees have completed vocational traineeships, four have progressed into and completed tertiary study and 11 have entered the competitive labour market. Over 50% of Clean Force team members are living with long-term psychiatric disabilities, or learning and intellectual disabilities, and this can often present challenges for other employers who are unable to accommodate their special needs. Clean Force works with employees to identify and address any barriers to employment. Every employee receives supervision and training appropriate to their individual ability and personal needs, and within that context they are trained as commercial cleaners who can deliver the highest quality service for Clean Force s customers. On top of this supervision and training, Clean Force offers its employees nationally accredited traineeships in Asset Maintenance (Cleaning Operations). As a qualification that is recognised across the country, this is an impressive yardstick for both the enterprise and its trainees. Looking Forward Clean Force s attitude towards the future mirrors its attitude towards its employees: a self-described philosophy of never giving up on anybody. In late 2012, the social enterprise absorbed Magic Green Clean and its 16 staff members, and it plans to continue growing the enterprise through contract growth and, where appropriate, mergers one bucket, one mop and one cleaner at a time. MEDIA CONTACT: Paul Fraser, Manager Clean Force Property Services. 03 8481 3000 / 0425 761 457 / paul.fraser@cleanforce.com.au
ONE TO WATCH 40K Group Providing life-changing education through a sustained commitment to innovation. Who They Are The 40K Group is a three-pronged social enterprise that combines education solutions for rural India as well as for Australian University students and corporations wanting to build social businesses themselves. The three entities 40K Foundation, 40K Globe and 40K Consulting work together to create what will eventually become a selfsustaining business model, where the profits from 40K Globe and 40K Consulting fund the 40K Foundation. The Foundation s project is 40K PLUS, a quality, scalable education program for children attending under-resourced schools in rural areas of India. Vision The vision for 40K Group has always been to provide quality education to some of the 110 million children in India that do not currently have that privilege. 40K PLUS is a specially designed maths and English program. Utilising tablet technology and a digital curriculum, the children have access to quality education. 40K PLUS has been validated to break even at the most affordable competitors price points (currently $4 per month per child) and has over 415 children registered across 17 learning pods in rural Indian villages. How It Works The group s ability to undertake extensive research and development and to sell the program at such low cost is made possible by the concurrent commercial programs of 40K Globe and 40K Consulting. 40K Globe offers one-month social entrepreneurship programs in India for Australian university students, and now has contracts with eight Australian universities including USYD, UTS and UNSW. Meanwhile, 40K Consulting helps corporations build profitable businesses that are geared towards social change, a concept also known as shared value. Working with companies such as Lend Lease Asia they have been able to guide and provide innovative solutions to the social problems large companies face; in the case of Lend Lease Asia, it was finding a way to provide safe, quality accommodation to foreign construction workers coming to Singapore. Looking Forward Profit sharing between the companies has allowed the 40K Foundation to retain key staff and to employ valuable A-players, something few not-for-profits have the luxury of doing. With strong, stable staffing they will be able to set up 40K PLUS in over 20,000 Indian villages within the next 10 years. In addition they intend to send more than 2,000 tertiary students on the 40K Globe program over the next five years and to establish themselves as the most successful shared value consulting practice in Australia. MEDIA CONTACT: Clary Castrission OAM, CEO, 0412 998 020 6
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT AWARD The Integrated Medical Centre, investment from Social Ventures Australia, Social Traders and cohealth A medicinal relationship that s becoming a model of enterprising health. Who They Are The Integrated Medical Centre (TIMC) is a general practice and allied health medical clinic, created by North Yarra Community Health (NYCH). NYCH has recently merged with two other local community health providers to form cohealth, now servicing Melbourne s inner-north and inner-west. TIMC retains its standalone practice under the cohealth umbrella, while its profits now subsidise the free and below-cost community health services cohealth provides to marginalised members of the community. The Social Enterprise TIMC doesn t heal only those who walk through its own doors. Since it became part of the cohealth umbrella, profits from its practice are directed to cohealth s support for the most marginalised members of the community: refugees, Indigenous people, homeless people, public housing residents and those with mental illnesses. The Social Investment Deal NYCH developed its robust business plan for a private GP practice in Fitzroy North through Social Traders start-up incubation program, The Crunch. In late 2012 when NYCH sought start-up capital to open the practice, Social Ventures Australia (SVA) and Social Traders (ST) recognised a unique partnership opportunity: NYCH is well known for delivering high-standard health and welfare services to the disadvantaged, and SVA and ST were aware of the strengths of NYCH s board and management team. Presented with a good idea, a great team and an organisation prepared to invest capital from their own balance sheet, SVA and ST co-invested in TIMC, which subsequently opened in mid-2013. As cohealth is reliant on government and philanthropic income, the extra revenue offered by TIMC s practice provides it with an independent income stream, while augmenting cohealth s reputation as a quality provider of medical care. Looking Forward There is still much to be done in the community that cohealth serves. The area currently has one of the highest concentrations of social housing in Melbourne. One of cohealth s top priorities is meeting demand for children s speech pathology, which is currently stifled by an 18-month waiting list. Using the profits raised by TIMC, cohealth hopes to increase its provision of this essential therapy. MEDIA CONTACTS: Social Ventures Australia - Alex Oppes; Manager, Impact Investing; 03 8688 0054 cohealth - Lyn Morgain, Transitional CEO, 0437 707 351
SOCIAL INNOVATION AWARD Thankyou A product range that puts gratitude on supermarket shelves. Who They Are Thankyou (originally Thankyou Water) is a social enterprise that has taken our insatiable thirst for bottled water and transformed it into funds for life-changing health projects in the Third World. Since it began trading, Thankyou has donated over $1 million to its associated charities, and has recently released the first products in its Thankyou Food and Thankyou Body Care ranges. Vision At only 19 years of age, Thankyou co-founder and Managing Director Dan Flynn learned that while Aussies consume over $600 million in bottled water a year, elsewhere in the world millions of people struggle to find a clean drinking source. In 2008 Thankyou began with a small team of volunteers and a big vision: to give the everyday Australian the opportunity to save a life, simply by offering them the alternative purchasing choice of its 600ml bottled water that, in turn, supports life-changing safe water projects in developing nations. The Thankyou model takes products we use on a daily basis, such as bottled water, oats, muesli, muesli bars, hand wash and hand lotion, and infuses their purchase with a social value. All profits from sales go towards funding projects implemented by charities such as the Red Cross, World Vision and Oxfam, who are undertaking highquality development projects around the world. The Innovation Thankyou has used innovative marketing strategies and social media campaigns to leverage its customers support and get its products stocked in Australia s biggest retail chains. In 2011 Thankyou mounted its first successful social media drive, asking fans to petition 7-Eleven Australia to stock Thankyou Water. This campaign was followed by a strategic multi-pronged approach in 2013, using mainstream media, publicity stunts and the support of loyal fans to get the attention of Australia s two biggest supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles. Their success in reaching the two retail giants was helped by another innovation: the development of two new product ranges, Thankyou Food and Thankyou Body Care. Thankyou also created Track Your Impact, a web app that allows consumers to track the flow-on effect of their spend and see exactly which project, and where, their money is being allocated to. Looking Forward Thankyou has grown nearly 200% since Coles and Woolworths came on board. It has helped tens of thousands of people gain access to safe water, health, hygiene and food security, and it s exciting to see more and more Australians get behind the Thankyou range. MEDIA CONTACT: Daniel Flynn, Managing Director and Co-Founder, 0402 601 223 8
BUY SOCIAL AWARD City of Gold Coast A council that is tendering social benefit. What is the buy social policy? The City of Gold Coast has embraced social procurement as a strategy to help reduce unemployment and increase economic activity in the Gold Coast community. Initiated in February 2013, its social procurement policy focuses on engaging suppliers that both provide a direct benefit to the disadvantaged communities of the Gold Coast and meet the Council s expectations that they are purchasing goods and services at the best value. As such, the Council offers tender opportunities directly to social enterprises and social benefit suppliers that work with Gold Coast communities, whether they be made up of young people, seniors, people with disabilities, the long-term unemployed or multicultural groups. The Council has also adopted a Buy Local policy that requires contracting opportunities under $200,000 to be offered to local businesses. For contracts over $200,000 the policy provides an added weighting to local businesses within its tender evaluation process. This Buy Local initiative channels $250 million per year to Gold Coast businesses, directly contributing to the growth of the local community. What are they buying? The City of Gold Coast procures approximately $700 to $800 million worth of goods and services every year. The Buy Local policy applies to all of these contracts, allocating assessment weight to local suppliers. As a result of its social procurement policy, the Council initially identified two categories of procurement spend suitable for the scheme: cleaning services for council buildings, and recycling services at waste transfer stations. A tender for $2.8 million over two years was issued for the cleaning contract, while the recycling tender was for contracts to the value of $3.2 million over three years at two of the city s waste and recycling centres. Contracts for both services could only be fulfilled by social benefits providers within the community. What were the outcomes? On an individual level, the Council s social procurement initiative has provided 76 jobs to disadvantaged members of the Gold Coast community through the awarding of socially geared contracts. On a macro level, the policies have encouraged local businesses to incorporate social objectives into their daily business operations, which, in turn, has promoted employment opportunities as well as inclusive and accessible work environments for disadvantaged members of the Gold Coast community. The Council has also helped build the skills of the Gold Coast s not-for-profit community groups, enabling them to access funding more easily and compete for business successfully. For Council, the aforementioned cleaning contract saved $168,000 (6%) over the two-year term against the baseline costs when compared to traditional contracts. Similarly, under the Buy Local policy, the proportion of Council s procurement budget spent on local supplies between January and December 2013 increased from 52% to 67%, providing the local economy with $100 million.
Looking Ahead Now that the frameworks are in place, the Council s vision is to create an additional 100 jobs for disadvantaged Gold Coasters over the next 12 months. It is also planning its next round of tender opportunities for social benefits providers in the areas of recycling services at other waste and recycling centres, e-waste recycling, graffiti removal services, management of community centres, and electrical tag and testing. The City of Gold Coast s initiative has received excellent external publicity and accolades. In 2013, the Council won the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Procurement Professional Award for Best Example of Socially Responsible Procurement in Australasia, making it an excellent model to other local councils in Australia of how a socially minded approach to procurement can benefit local communities. -end- 10