COMMUNITY LEADERS

The Green Connect Zero Waste team undertake waste audits, create waste management plans, provide waste education and assist events on their journey towards zero waste. Image: Green Connect.

Strong leadership is the shared attribute of successful not-for-profit organisations. Through its core funding principles, the Foundation aims to cultivate leadership in the Australian social sector.

During its history, the Foundation has sought to identify leaders in the social sector and to offer support at critical points to help them to progress their organisations and the sector. With this timely support, leaders can capture opportunities to develop models that may be transferred to other settings – and ultimately transform the lives of diverse groups of disadvantaged or vulnerable people.

Community Resources Ltd is based in Illawarra in New South Wales, a region with one of Australia’s highest unemployment rates. Particularly vulnerable cohorts in this region include young people and former refugees, with only 31 per cent of former refugees finding employment five years after resettlement. Local community members, concerned about this significant vulnerability, set up Green Connect, a social enterprise that focuses on creating jobs for former refugees and young people through growing fresh produce sustainably in their community garden; and other services such as event waste management.

The Foundation has supported Green Connect since 2017 with two grants totalling $464,000. The second grant, awarded in 2020, enabled Green Connect to consolidate and expand the farm, increasing food production, sales and associated job opportunities on site. The organisation has won several awards for leadership in sustainability. Kylie Flament, former General Manager of Green Connect explains,“We were singled out for the way we combine social, environmental and economic impact in a way that inspires others to do the same. We’re immensely proud to accept this award on behalf of the huge community of people who have created and shaped Green Connect –staff, volunteers, funders, customers, supporters and the broader community.”

Another award-winning social sector leader is Bernie Shakeshaft, recipient of the 2020 Australian of the Year – Local Hero award. With a background as a youth worker, in 2016 Shakeshaft established BackTrack Youth Works, a social enterprise providing at-risk youth with professional skills development, work experience and lifelong resilience to maintain meaningful participation in the employment market. In 2019, the Foundation recognised BackTrack’s strong leadership and awarded a $300,000 grant to support the scaling up of the program. Chair of the National Australia Day Council, Danielle Roche, OAM, said,“Bernie Shakeshaft took the initiative to help and support young people in need, helping to build stronger individuals, communities and futures at the same time.”

SisterWorks Incorporated was also started by an inspiring individual who wanted to create a permanent space for refugee and migrant women to come together for support, to feel empowered by sharing their skills with others or learn new skills. Luz Restrepo arrived in Australia at the age of 45 in 2010, seeking political asylum. A medical doctor and communications expert, Restrepo spoke no English and felt frightened, isolated and disempowered – and she soon discovered that she was not alone. In 2011, Restrepo and 25 women experiencing similar challenges began to make and sell crafts around Melbourne. She understood that to support each other is also to strengthen each other. In May 2013, a committee of volunteers joined Restrepo with legal, fundraising, marketing and administrative skills, and SisterWorks Inc. was born. The Foundation awarded grants of $20,000 in

2016 and $105,000 in 2018 to help SisterWorks expand its operations from a single site in Melbourne to share its model via a series of hubs around regional Victoria. In 2022, the Foundation awarded a further $325,000 capacitybuilding grant to provide core support as SisterWorks plans for its future.

Restrepo has since left the organisation, but her passion and commitment is embodied in Sisterworks’ mission to support women who are refugees, asylum seekers or migrants so they can build their confidence, mental wellbeing, sense of belonging and economic outlook.

In less than a decade, SisterWorks has grown exponentially, supporting over 1,200 refugee, migrant and asylum seeking women to build their skills, independence, confidence and economic outlook. In their commercial-grade kitchen, Sisters making the SisterWorks labelled food range.

Image: SisterWorks.

Another social leader who has used his own experiences to create an organisation that serves its community is Chris Varney, who founded I CAN Network in 2013. As Chief Enabling Officer,Varney has grown I CAN

Network into Australia’s largest Autistic-led organisation with over 70 Autistic staff and more than 2,000 students in the program nationally.

Varney is an Autistic law graduate with a background in children’s rights and youth programs. In 2009, he was the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations and World Vision Australia’s Manager of Youth. In 2018 he was Victorian Australian of the Year Finalist and recipient of the 2017 Supreme Court of Victoria’s Best Achievement in Human Rights Award. He also serves as National Patron of the Australian Association for Special Education and is the Chairperson of the Victorian Disability Advisory Council.

“You are not difficult, you are unique.You are not a subject of pity, you are a subject of strengths.You have nothing to apologise for, you have so much to contribute. Every family, every community, every school, every workplace is better when it has US.” – Chris Varney, I CAN Network Founder & CEO

Recognising Varney as a pioneer of Autistic-led service provision in Australia, the Foundation offered support to I CAN Network in 2019 with a three-year,

$200,000 grant to scale up its online mentoring program for young people on the Autism spectrum. I CAN Network aims to reach as many Autistic young people in Australia as possible, helping them develop pride, social connections and valuable life skills. At the same time, I CAN Network is increasing paid employment opportunities for Autistic mentors.

More recently, the Foundation’s Community Wellbeing program has begun to offer greater support for leadership at a sector-wide level. In support of its bold 10-year vision (Vision 2030), social enterprise procurement organisation Social Traders was awarded a five-year, $1.5 million capacity-building grant. The organisation aims to support social enterprises to create over 44,000 jobs for disadvantaged Australians by growing the market for their products and services to $1 billion by 2030. Its vision seeks to scale and embed social enterprise procurement nationally; driving major reforms in public and private sector procurement policy to include buying from social enterprises.

Supporting the growth of social procurement, incentivising corporates and government departments to buy services and goods from social enterprises, will ultimately strengthen the whole social enterprise sector. The Foundation will continue to promote leadership in the Australian social sector by recognising leading organisations and the highly skilled individuals driving these organisations to be well-prepared and able to fulfil their missions.