What is it really like to be a regional impact practitioner?

For the earlier part of my career (advertising and then procurement) I felt like a square peg in a round hole. My business and marketing qualifications surely meant I should be attracted to that type of work and yet I had a deeper calling to do better for my community. (CSR and ESG just weren't a thing in those days, in fact my procurement colleagues would often tease me for 'chasing rainbows' as they called my social impact pursuits).

I grappled over decisions faced by most corporate refugees back then - should I volunteer, or should I look for a job in the not for profit sector?

It didn't take long to realise neither option worked for me. As a young mum I didn't have a lot of time for volunteering, and in all honesty the way a lot of not for profits ran their business also frustrated me.

I was looking for something in between that at that time didn't have a name.

So in lieu of a job title to chase or an industry to pursue I turned my focus to the social issues I wanted to address and then made my engagement work by cobbling together a series of contract funding and casual work.

It wasn't easy but eventually revenue sources became more predictable and my name was established as someone who can get things done.

I still remember attending the Social Enterprise World Forum in Melbourne (2009) and feeling like I'd found my people. Little did I know at the time a whole industry was forming equipped with job titles, theories, best practice models and exciting conversations.

Fourteen years on the full force of this movement is yet to reach many of the regional communities I work in.

And it's not because we are slow or stupid. It's simply because by and large regional communities have been left out of the social impact / social enterprise conversation.

"But there's plenty of access" you may say "There's a webinar or class online every other day". "We visited that community back in 2018".

And of course it's true. All of these things happen. But there is no substitute for an actual eco-system to support the development of a new practice. As I've said for many years now if you're the only social entrepreneur in the village you are going to feel very lonely and probably just a little loopy.

Why? Because you can go forth and learn whatever you want to learn. But when application of that learning implies people will have to change their approach, or do some more work - and there's nobody backing you up you'd better have a damn loud voice and the tenacity to keep going when eyes glaze over or you're told again, and again that you're wrong.

That aside when our primary learning and networking options are city based it's fair to say that the content will be city-centric and we are left to adapt models in isolation. Because social impact practice is and should be different in regional areas to their city based counterparts.

Through the years I've invested tens of thousands of my own dollars to travel to far off (city based) locations to learn everything I could about social impact. I've networked, asked questions and ticked off qualifications.

When I bring these skills back to the regions in the form of capacity development or consulting I note that it's hard to make change stick. It was only after running the first Social Impact in the Regions conference, and I analysed the post-conference surveys my jaw dropped to realise that FOURTY THREE PERCENT of the delegates who responded to the survey had never participated in any training related to social impact before.

Let that soak in... 43%.

So how can we build robust systems and social change when the conversations we need to have just aren't happening? (yet).

So what nurturing do these regional social impact eco-systems need?

1. Funding models: The largest employing industry in most regional Australian communities, and the sector still most likely to drive social impact models is social services and health. These services are traditionally funded by the public purse through allocations and more likely contestable grants or private entities who also sip from this pool. If social change is driven by a paradigm of handouts and allocations how can we possibly shift to a more self-sustaining model? It's just not the way things are done.
2. Workforce: Where are our social impact practitioners? When roles that carry the language of social impact are few and far between there's nothing to aspire to nor align with. Not all social impact practitioners want to be self-employed nor start their own NGO (nor should they) so how can we create more regionally based roles, and pathways to these roles to lead the way?
3. Expertise: Because regional Australia's version of developing regional social impact eco-systems has been flying in our city-based colleagues who don't always understand regional context for workshops and at best hybrid programs we've had very little opportunity to grow our own and it is only the most well resourced and tenacious who have had the opportunity to develop the skills required to operate effectively in sustainable social impact.
4. Language: In the regions we are great at expressing our problems - unless someone makes a joke about us in which case we are quick to retort. Our problems are worth $$ so why not talk like that. But something happens to the psyche of a community that focuses on problems. Don't believe me? Come and visit.
5. Voice: If you look at investment, policy and programs that stimulate social impact you'd be forgiven if you thought social enterprise / social impact activity couldn't exist beyond city limits. Unless of course some token regional funding is thrown out and city based experts fly in to deliver. There are many experts in the regions - it's just hard to get a guernsey. And yes, I do see this is changing - but at the same time I question how many regionally located impact practitioners are at these tables?
6. Data: Without any tools for measurement beyond what the funding body asks for, and in the knowing that communities are often funded through multiple organisations to address social challenges it's quite likely there will be no useful community data around what has actually changed nor what needs to shift in order to create that change.
7. Case studies: Who are our regional champions? While some do jump through the grass ceiling most impact champions showcased on the who is who lists are city based where the networks flourish and (let's face it) most of the impact industry communications are produced. You can't be who you can't see.

So, with the bold and timely rise and collectivisation of the social enterprise world, with the surge of ESG investment across Australia and with communities who have suffered the same social problems for far too long it's time regional social impact practitioners to take a seat at the table.

Join the conversation at Social Impact in the Regions