Youngster.co

Youngster.co

Enterprise name Youngster.co

What’s the trading activity Youngster.co is a social enterprise that addresses the critical societal issues of the widening intergenerational gap, loneliness among young and old, and the challenges posed by rapid technological advances. Youngster.co creates work and volunteering experiences for young people who assist seniors with their tech needs. Free tech-help sessions are delivered by young people for seniors in shopping centres and libraries, or for a small fee at home.

What’s the social or environmental cause your enterprise addresses?

Our impact extends beyond tech help; we’re about building connections, fostering understanding, and creating a community where everyone feels valued and respected. We also commit 50% of our profits to tech help sessions.

What is your hope for the future?

The biggest challenge is to get the seniors aware of this service. The service is free at shopping centres. Businesses interested in up-skilling their mature-age workers might find our approach interesting:
Mature-age workers have a wealth of experience, knowledge, and skills that are an asset to any workplace. However, they have not grown up with the same technologies as their younger counterparts. As a result of this, many find adopting new technology to be a daunting task, affecting their confidence, productivity, and relationships with colleagues. Our vetted Youngsters are here to help mature-age workers learn the tech skills they need to work effectively. Whether you need 1:1 sessions for specific employees or group sessions to train everyone on a new system, we’ve got it covered!

Welcome Merchant

Enterprise name Welcome Merchant

What’s the trading activity We run curated dining events and artist-led workshops in Sydney and Melbourne, in partnership with refugee and asylum seeker entrepreneurs in Australia.

We also sell gift hampers on behalf of 9 refugee entrepreneurs.

We promote, for free, refugee and asylum seeker entrepreneurs in our online directory and social media channels. We also run free skill-building workshops for these entrepreneurs.

What’s the social or environmental cause your enterprise addresses?

We bridge the gap between the refugee and asylum seeker business community and the wider public.

We are contributing to changing the negative perception of refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia.

How are you going with the work?

We have organised 18 successful events in partnership with the refugee entrepreneurs so far, 3 of them in Melbourne.

We’ve sold around 180 gift hampers, with 90 being sold to Canva end of 2021.

We have featured 119 refugee-led businesses in Australia since we launched on Instagram in March 2020. We’ve organised 5 free skill-building workshops for the entrepreneurs.

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Australian Spatial Analytics

Australian Spatial Analytics

Enterprise name Australian Spatial Analytics

What’s the trading activity ASA is a unique data services provider, our purpose is to use data to employ diversity.
As one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing social enterprises, we add value to corporations and governments by training and employing remarkable young neurodiverse individuals to process and analyse geospatial and engineering data in a range of industries including telcos, energy, utilities, agriculture, government agencies and academia.

What’s the social or environmental cause your enterprise addresses?

Our Goal is to make Social Impact to the lives of young un-employed neurodiverse people in our community, by providing a career pathway in Geospatial and Engineering sectors.
By doing this, we solve Short term skills shortages for our client’s projects, by delivering Undergraduate Geospatial and Engineering professional services
We also solve long term skills shortages by training and nurturing the next generation of Geospatial and Engineering Professionals

How are you going with the work?

Answer ASA is Australia’s largest and fastest growing Work Integrated Social Enterprise, delivering Geospatial and Digital Engineering professional services to the Victorian Economy.
We have over 110 staff and plans to have 300 staff in 3 years, of which 80% will be neurodiverse

QVWC SHOP!

QVWC SHOP!

Enterprise name QVWC SHOP!

What’s the trading activity The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Shop is a feminist design concept store in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, showcasing products locally sourced and designed by Victorian Women artists, designers and makers.

What’s the social or environmental cause your enterprise addresses?

We exist to shine a light on, and celebrate, the incredible and diverse range of women-owned and run product based small businesses here in Victoria.
Women start small businesses for many reasons – to be their own boss, gain financial independence and build a livelihood for themselves and their families. Running your own business also fuels a sense of purpose and creativity, and offer a feeling of connection to a wider community.
When women are supported with opportunities to thrive in small business we believe this can have a transformative effect on their lives.

What is your hope for the future?

We hope for a world where true equality exists. A world where diverse perspectives are recognised and heard, a world where workloads are shared, and opportunities are equal.
We hope for a world where kids growing up – regardless of gender – believe that they can achieve whatever they choose in life, with no glass ceilings.
Supporting women to create their dream businesses and succeed is a big part of that, and showing the next generation that women deserve to be valued and heard equally.

Common Times

Common Times

Enterprise name Common Times

What’s the trading activity Common Times is a digital noticeboard that connects community groups and their local community. Common Times builds community connection and engagement and hence individual and community resilience. NFP community groups can list on Common Times and post news about the services they provide and any events coming up. SENVIC members can list their business on Common Times under our shop local listing. Common Times gets over 50K visitors per annum – get your share of this audience by listing your community group or business.

What’s the social or environmental cause your enterprise addresses?

Common Times fights loneliness and builds local community resilience. Big search and big social media actively discourage local connection. They reward content that divides. They present content that focusses users on an ever narrower interests. Measuring the value of content by the number of clicks rewards national and international content at the expense of the local and regional. Result is a connected society without local connection and a pandemic of loneliness. Common Times is built to support local community connection. It builds engagement and involvement in the local community by design. Only community groups and local businesses can post on Common Times and every reader sees all the content related to just their local area. Just like a local noticeboard except in feed format on your phone.

What is the biggest challenge?

Getting content. We want every member of SENVIC to put their community group or business on Common Times and get their customers to follow them on Common Times. Let’s change the world. Let’s get local. Let’s get connected.

https://commontimes.com.au/