2023 - a year for my lessons in social enterprise sector

Last month I was one of 15 social enterprises from the 2022 cohort joined the 15 2023 cohort travelling across Sydney and Melbourne for the immersion with A2ELP group. This trip experience highlighted me more lessons I was yet to learn about social enterprises. I am into 7th year of my own social enterprise journey, and I am still learning new things everyday!

So why this matters to me? My journey was a rocky one. In 2016 I was nobody, a lonely single male actively looking for meaningful purpose. Despite faced challenges such as rejections in employment, fear of making friends and relationships. I was actively involved in disability support network about my personal experiences with disabilities faced multiple discrimination and barriers living in the society. I was shared with other members in these groups.

So the journey of social enterprise was started in 2018, a year later when I started Nature Freedom. I was still struggling at this time because of my identity because everything was still new to me.

My own business also replicates my personal identity. Thus social enterprise concept was a true thing that I was looking for a purpose in my life. Nature Freedom became a social enterprise in 2019 during the time I was on a board with QSEC. My journey since thing has changed a lot, took me a time to think about my personal experiences and leadership.

Despite distractions from COVID, NDIS and natural disasters in the past 5 years I am still here standing tall taking initiatives in the social enterprise sector. It not just a solution addressing to my personal barriers, but a solution to the society as whole. Since I was a Masters student in 2015-16 at UQ I pursued multiple interest in sustainability, active transport, community planning and environmental sciences. These interests has turned into my passions, and earned me a lot of confidence about my journey through social enterprise.

Nature Freedom was also a huge deal to me. It has helped my leadership abilities, meeting new friends and building positive relationships. I have supported at least 250 individuals with disabilities since the launch of first inclusive activity in August 2018. The impacts made me to smile. It reminded of who I was 10 years ago looking for someone to do to make life enjoyable and fun.

So, being part of amazing social enterprise community at a local, regional, state, national and international levels has made me to become a person today. A big thank you to all of the people who are involved with my journey. My experiences and opportunities wouldn't be possible without you.

I am very excited to see what takes to next level!