They really wanted to build this group of social enterprises, they really wanted to build a voice and a sector that could advocate for that grassroots kind of push.

We’ve got many social enterprises who’ve just gone into hibernation, and you’re in big trouble. They see that there’s a lot of challenges. They don’t know how and when the next lot of support from government will impact, or if it will reach them, if there is a next level of support.

A lot of businesses have just stopped operating for now, to wait and see what’s around the corner, to see how quickly we can recover or to make plans to get people back.

A lot of people in that space, generally speaking, are in the products and services, [but] mostly products market. They’ve got retail shops; they’ve got businesses that are restaurants and those sorts of things and they’re really suffering. Then we’ve got some businesses who’ve been able to see some of the opportunities that have arisen out of this, and are pivoting. They’re looking at their skills, they’re looking at the new markets emerging, and they’re changing their business models, not necessarily their purpose. Some of them are actually going, “well I have to park my purpose for a minute and just survive.” But many of them are still very much connected to their purpose and are finding new ways to pivot their businesses along to new emerging kinds of markets.

Then we’ve got some businesses who’ve been absolutely swamped with demand. They’ve found that there’s a whole bunch of demand for their product, particularly in the food space and agriculture.

It’s become a little bit difficult; supply chains have been a little bit more difficult to source. But also, in surprising ways, like the businesses who might be re-purposing computers or things like that for kids at schools. They’re having to scale up their employees, they’re having to find new ways of training, really adapting and scaling their business systems.

The biggest advantage for social enterprises is the focus that we’ve had around purpose, and also their strength in their communities, because a lot of social enterprises are deeply embedded with their local communities.

The communities in this time need more than ever their purpose-led organisations to help them through. Some of them are finding new relevance in some ways with their local community. That’s one of our great advantages, I think. As we move toward whatever recovery looks like, I think a lot of social enterprises are also very much led by people, and they’re people centric organisations that really look after their staff and the people in their supply chains.

That’s extremely valuable at this time when everybody’s under a lot of mental and economic duress. Having people who care and are kind in this space, has never been more important.

I think that’s probably the biggest areas of advantage that social enterprises have over normal business as usual.

Absolutely. So, when we look at the sector more broadly across Australia, what do you believe is needed to build on this current momentum that we’re seeing? How might government best support impact-led businesses and that momentum, the joining of state bodies for example?

There’s some amazing things happening in the National Alliance, and it’s got to be said, thank you Tom, for your very strong advocacy in this space for such a long time. I know that it’s been a long journey and a vision of yours to have a national voice for social enterprise, and thanks to your strong leadership in this space.

It’s really been a team sport!

It’s a team sport alright! But we are delighted in our national relationships.

at the moment, we’re forging ahead with a submission to really help articulate what the sector needs. We think that strategy is the most important thing. If we could get a national strategy around direction forward for social enterprise as a whole, that would be great.

We also need to raise up our profile. We need to really allow ourselves to understand the impact that social enterprises deliver, and not to be afraid to demonstrate that. We’re building a bit of a momentum around a campaign that will help social enterprises not only understand what business as usual is, but to also demonstrate how they go beyond business as usual and reveal the impact in a way that potentially hasn’t been harvested before. I think it’s going to find a new voice and a new relevance in our times now, because it’s smaller than ever. People really need to see the communities coming together and working together to get better societies. I think that’s really where the opportunities at that national level sit.

We’re also looking at areas of funding and seeing what kinds of initiatives might be able to be born out of these opportunities that are arising in the new markets. There’s a lot of activity and talk about the way social enterprises could be mainstreamed in some way. Using social enterprise as your business as usual, helps you to go beyond business as usual, even if you’re a big organisation or local government state body. So really looking at procurement and seeing where some funding opportunities may be able to come down the track.

I love to hear you talking about business as usual, because I think in the ideal world right, we wouldn’t need the term ‘social enterprise’. We’d just simply call it ‘business’.

And why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you go beyond business as usual? Everybody wants it.

So, what about some inspiring projects? Are there any particular initiatives or organisations? You come across a lot in your role at QSEC, but which ones do you believe are really creating some great positive social change?

Well I love the story that came out of Substation 33 down in Logan, around [rebuilding] computers for children at home. That was so heartbreaking to hear in one short week, schools moved from everybody turning up to everybody being online.

Knowing the education sector so well, I understood immediately the pressures on low socioeconomic families. The access to computers, the access to technology, having a computer was not necessarily going to solve all of those issues, but it sure goes a long way when you’ve actually got a device that you can plug in.

Even if you’re able to use a town centre WiFi, or your neighbour’s WiFi if you beg. Having access to that technology was really fantastic, and it was great to hear that there was such great local support for Substation 33 in that way. They rebuilt these unused, unloved computers, and were able to give computers to those low socio-economic kids. So that was really inspirational.

Hope Street Cafe, [is] providing meals for front line workers, re-establishing some supply chains through that mechanism. Being able to provide work for their people was really fantastic. Also, very heartbreaking to hear the Nundah Co-ops Cafe (Espresso Train) going down the same trajectory and having some of the volunteers come forward and just say, “I need to have somewhere to belong. Please just let me help. Help me work.” So, they amped up some of their other avenues in their business streams as well to try and help give people a place to belong. The same sort of thing happened at the World’s Biggest Garage Sale, people just wanting to have something to do.

There’s been a huge number of social enterprises pivoting, or ‘pirouetting’, as Leanne Kemp would say. Changing the way that they run business, connecting and reaching out to their local communities, and there has been many pearls amongst the disaster that has been COVID.

There’s been some beautiful things happening. The arts and cultural sector, it really is a private passion of mine, but they have thrown themselves and all their skills to the fore, suddenly becoming online teachers of their art and craft, providing inspiration and advocating for community building events and connecting online has just been an extraordinarily overwhelming position. The talent that’s shown through there is just amazing. So, hats off to my arts friends.