social enterprise

Are you a creative thinker who wants to see the world differently? Then get your groove on and come along to Future Shock for Creative Sydney, presented by IF Talks.

IF connects local innovators and experts to discuss far reaching themes like ethonomics, online, design, technology and more. In this IF talk the panel will discuss the future of technology and the impacts on our immediate future.

The expert panel curated by uncluttered white spaces will address the simple questions: What has changed, what is changing, and what should we be doing to address these changes?

The event is taking place in just three days on Thursday 9 June from 6.30 – 8.30pm in Sydney CBD. All profits raised from the IF Talk will go to STREAT.

Head to IF Vivid for bookings and event info.

Walking through Melbourne University for the first time feels a bit like going on a wild goose chase, and it’s not because of the layout, but because all of the buildings look the same – blonde brick, concrete and blue steel – and not of the Zoolander variety!

As you make your way through to the Melbourne Uni Student Union North Court, a brilliant pop of red greets you, followed by the warmth of our resident pot plants, the sound of funky beats pumping from the cart and the smell of fresh coffee, pungent herbs and sizzling garlic – say hello to STREAT’s latest cafe.

STREAT worked with the talented Ammon Beyerle and Pete Spence from Herestudio Architects to design and craft our new café. The innovative design features walls made from iconic red recycled milk crates that lovingly wrap around our food and coffee carts. The result is visually spectacular!

This is the first time that we have had a sizable piece of real estate that has allowed us to pull off a double site, but does this compromise the STREAT experience? Definitely not!

I’m proud to say that our latest street cafe is a smooth operator that is quickly earning a reputation for the ‘best coffee on campus.’ And coffee that is ‘AMAZING and quick!’ and ‘some seriously good coffee karma for your morning caffeine kick!’ Our gourmet sandwiches are also earning a decent foodie following among students and faculty – we had our very first onsite catering gig just the other day and two loyalty cards have been completed since we opened up just three weeks ago.

Our CEO Rebecca Scott also had a thing or two to say about working on our latest venture. "I’m looking forward to working with Melbourne University Student Union Ltd and I’m proud that this year we’ll give customers over 45 reasons to share a meal or buy a coffee with STREAT at our latest street cafe. They are... Jamie, Bahareh, Andrew, Rayne, Imogen, Jen, Damien, Wren, Maddie, Con, John, Medina, Nathan, Chloe, Susie, Chantelle, Jake... the list goes on!”

Throughout 2011 STREAT will work with 40 homeless youth. Through the support of you – our loyal customers, we will provide 20,000 hours of paid employment to our trainees.

By the end of 2011 STREAT will be serving up to 1,000 customers daily across both of our street cafe sites with a target of hitting the 100,000 coffee served mark by Christmas.

So come on down to see our latest food and coffee cart for yourselves, and help us stop homelessness the delicious way by sharing a meal with us.

Kylie

I have a strong belief that as consumers our greatest power is the way we spend our money. And if we strive to change as many lives as possible with each purchase, we'll start to recreate our economy to be fairer and more just. I was reminded of this on Tuesday night when I heard Kohinoor Yeasmin, the CEO of Tarango, talk about her work in Fair Trade, micro-enterprise and grassroots economic empowerment programs with women in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her inspirational talk, which was held at the Abbotsford Convent Bakery and part of Fairtrade Fortnight, told the stories of a handful of the women whose lives had been transformed. She reminded me that whenever we buy a cup of fair trade coffee, each bean in each cup is imbued with stories. Stories of the women who planted the coffee plant, and then toiled in the heat to harvest the beans. Stories of the people who were fairly paid for their hard day's work planting, picking, drying and transporting the beans to our shores. But the stories of empowerment don't have to end once the beans reach Australia. I shared with the gathering the stories of STREAT's coffee which is roasted and blended in partnership with the Convent Bakery. Youth in STREAT's program who have suffered from homelessness learn about the roasting process, and help grind and package the coffee whilst receiving a fair wage for their work. The coffee is then purchased by customers and 100% of the profit goes back to helping those same youth receive vocational and life skills at STREAT. By buying STREAT Coffee the beans get imbued with even more stories of transformation, and we blend together the stories of people from opposite sides of the globe.

I think there's a strong philosophical alignment between the Fair Trade, organic and social enterprise movements, and I'd like to find more ways for us to work together. And by doing so I think we'll create products like STREAT's coffee which are triple certified—they are Fair Trade, organic and socially just at the local level.

There were times I sat in Thursday’s Investing for Impact Forum thinking that one day we’d all look back on the forum as a pivotal point in the development of Australia’s social investment sector. There were enough people in the room with the skills, experience and passion to collectively bring about the changes we need. There was also a strong desire for action. And as Cheryl Kernot pointed out, the Centre for Social Impact --who hosted the event-- is an organisation of pracademics.

Here’s a few other highlight’s of yesterday’s Investing for Impact Forum:

• I particularly loved hearing  the details about how the collapse of the ABC Learning Centres has catalysed a bunch of non-profits (Mission Australia, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Social Ventures Australia, the Benevolent Society), philanthropic investors (like the Trawalla Foundation), and financial institutions (like the NAB) to form the GoodStart consortia and take over the centres. In addition to running profitable centres, what is exciting is the central social focus ‘to provide high quality care, assist disadvantaged children, provide quality early learning education, support local communities, increase parent participation in childcare, and positively change Australia’s early learning and childcare policies.’ As Matthew Turner, Director of Corporate Finance for NAB pointed out, these were decisions the bank would never usually take into consideration when making investment decisions. He made it clear that although the social outcomes didn’t impact the rigour and due diligence the bank performed when structuring GoodStart’s finance, they did change how determined they were to find the right financial solutions. As pointed out, Australia is far behind the OECD rankings in early childhood development and the collapse of ABC provided a ‘once in a generation opportunity’ to bring about real social changes in this area. I wonder how Eddy Groves is feeling about his former 678 centres (his cashcows actually) becoming Australia’s largest social enterprise!