A vision and mission for the social enterprise sector in Australia

People across the Australian social enterprise sector have been working together to develop a shared vision and mission.?This names a direction for the sector,?and lays foundations on which we can together build a national strategy.?

The words have just been finalised and… Drumroll…

Our shared vision is:

Working together to ensure all people, places and the planet thrive.?

Our shared mission is to:

Foster a vibrant and connected Australian social enterprise sector that provides:

·??????Environmental care

·??????People-centred services

·??????Access to decent work

·??????Community-led innovation

These words were developed by the sector for the sector, in all our diversity. It was?a learning process about shared and different wants for social enterprise in Australia and for how we work together as a sector.

Different people touched different parts of the process. The Yunus Centre consulted with people across the sector and, based on what they heard,?developed first drafts. ASENA –??which represents Australia’s seven practitioner-led state and territory social enterprise networks?– and open-invite workshops gave?feedback?and came up with alternatives.?For the workshops, there were 177 registrations and 119?attendees.?

Based on this input, a group including Cindy Mitchell, Sharon Zivkovic, Alex Hannant, Cam Willis, Carmen Garcia, Ben Pecotich and Jess Moore worked to distil and agree on a second draft, in consultation with members of the Social Enterprise World Forum First Nations Committee.

These words were then shared with all those who registered for the workshops, and publicly, with an ask that people across the sector give feedback.

302 people provided feedback.

They came overwhelmingly from a social enterprise (217), followed by an intermediary (41), an academic organisation (16), a peak body (15), other (15), a philanthropic organisation (14), an impact investment organisation (9), and in government (10).

They came from across all Australian states and territories. Participants were asked where their organisation had operations. The greatest number said NSW (160), followed by Qld (117), Vic (96), SA (68), WA (64), ACT (62), NT (60), and Tas (53).

The vision

The draft vision shared for feedback was:

A world that works together to ensure all people, places and planet thrive.

It was developed to incorporate the key and common themes that emerged from the workshop:

·??????Collaboration itself as a vision.

·??????Naming and valuing social, environmental and place-based impact, and equally.

·??????Using language that is simple, clear and direct.

The majority of respondents supported this draft: 80% said it was reflective of the sector, and 16% said it was reflective of the sector with minor changes. Further, 89% said they saw themselves and their work in statement, and 9% said they saw themselves and their work with minor changes.

91 people also provided written feedback on the vision.?

There was strong overall support for the content, and some common feedback on the words used to express this content.

The most common theme in the written feedback (30) was support. It included:

·???????Well done on this draft. It’s something I feel proud to be part of. Well done too on the process to develop it. You created space for all to be part of this.

·???????I think it's great. I am so happy to sit beneath this common vision.

·???????… This is a magnificent reconciliation of diverse and divergent opinions in the workshop I went to.

·???????Such contradictory things were wanted in the workshop I went to and I think this is a brilliant balance. It’s also motivating.

·???????Makes me feel hopeful and proud to be part of this sector.

Also common were two wordsmithing requests to?add a “the” before planet and to remove “world” from the statement.?

This feedback was reviewed by the Social Enterprise National Strategy Advisory Council. Incorporating this common feedback, the vision was finalised as:?Working together to ensure all people, places and the planet thrive.?

The mission

The draft mission shared for feedback was:?

Foster a healthy and connected Australian social enterprise sector that provides:

·???????Environmental care and solutions

·???????Dignified people-centred human services

·???????Access to decent work

·???????Tools for community led innovation

It was developed to incorporate the key and common themes that emerged from the workshop:

·???????Broad support for multiple?focus areas or missions?to name the specific contributions the sector makes.

·??????Broad support for these four areas.

·??????Weaving in community leadership, to reflect First Nations, lived experience and place-based leadership.

·??????Using language that is simple, clear and direct.

The majority of respondents supported this mission, though a significant number wanted minor modifications: 57% said it was reflective of the sector, and 36% said it was reflective of the sector with minor changes. Further, 83% said they saw themselves and their work in statement, and 13% said they saw themselves and their work with minor changes.

135 people also provided written feedback on the mission. Again, there was strong overall support for the content, and some common feedback on the words used to express this content.

The common themes were:

·??????Change the word ‘healthy’, most often to ‘vibrant’.

·??????Remove ‘and solutions’ from ‘environmental care and solutions’, with some strong dislike of the word ‘solutions’ and others seeing it as redundant. While some alternative words and greater description were also suggested, they varied greatly and there was strong support for the word ‘care’.

·??????Simplify ‘dignified people-centred human services’ to ‘people-centred services’, to remove the only qualifying adjective and to include the many enterprises set up to meet human need that are not classified as human services.

·??????While different people prefer different words, ‘decent work’ was most commonly supported to describe this focus area, which aligns language to the Sustainable Development Goals. ‘Decent work’ is intended to capture work that is productive and offers?conditions of freedom, fairness, security and human dignity.

·??????Simplify ‘tools for community led innovation’ to ‘community-led innovation’.

The draft and all feedback was shared with the Social Enterprise National Strategy Advisory Council. While personal preferences for exact wording varied, as the best reflection of what the sector said, the mission was finalised as:?Foster a vibrant and connected Australian social enterprise sector that provides:

·??????Environmental care

·??????People-centred services

·??????Access to decent work

·??????Community-led innovation

A milestone (or two)

It’s a big milestone to have named a shared direction and call to action as a sector. Practically, it gives us a compass in our work together and provides a foundation for a national strategy.

It’s also a big milestone that this was built together by people across the sector. We are diverse – and people have strong and different ideas about particular things. We also share that we strive for a better world.?

Enormous thanks to all who came together to build not only this vision and mission, but this collaboration.

What’s next?

A vision and mission for the sector was the first of five foundations named by the Yunus Centre research, needed to enable the sector to build a national strategy together. The four others being built are:

1.?????To design and set up a new fit-for-purpose organisation to lead the national strategy process,?connect actors and efforts across the breadth of our sector, and to engage with the Federal Government. Social Enterprise Australia is now in the final stages of name registration with ASIC and there will be a sector co-design process to decide how it will work.

2.?????Establish principles of practice to agree shared values and how we’ll work together. A co-design process for this will kick off in April. Stay tuned.

3.?????Profile and promote the value of social enterprise through communications, education and advocacy.

4.?????Commission an investment case for the social enterprise sector, to articulate the value of social enterprise sector.