Enterprising Communities

Index by Region

Central Coast

• Affordable Housing through Cooperative Ownership
  - A submission developed by Equilibrium Community Ecology Inc as an option for Gosford City Council's alternative housing strategy, November 2004.
• Creating Our Future - Youth Vision and Action for the NSW Central Coast
  - The Jigsaw Project (Central Coast Child and Youth Strategy) and the Futures Foundation partnered in a futuring process for young people which created a preferred vision for the Central Coast in 2020 and implemented three practical action plans to help achieve that future.

Illawarra

• Toy Share Story – a thriving community enterprise
  - Toy Share, Australia’s first community toy store in Wollongong NSW, restores and distributes toys and educational products to sick and disadvantaged children and their families.

International

• Caring and Sharing: The co-owned route to better care
  - This Employee Ownership Association paper by Dave Wheatcroft is the story of award winning employee owned Sunderland Home Care Associates and how founder Margaret Elliott and co-owners have built a family of enterprises lifting care standards in the North of England. Published September 2007.
• Innovative Co-ops in the Social Services Sector: A research study to benefit people with developmental disabilities and mental illness
  - This Canadian Government funded report is on innovative social services delivery around the world (including one example in Australia - Nundah Community Enterprise Cooperative in Q'land) where cooperatives are used with the specific aim of empowering the participants through encouraging "ownership" of the programs directed at them. Participation in ownership and control of such programs seems to be successful in reducing dependency/increasing independence and producing superior outcomes for those involved.
• AIESEC
  - AIESEC is the international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential so as to have a positive impact on society. In addition to providing over 5,000 leadership positions and delivering over 350 conferences, AIESEC also runs an exchange program that enables over 4,000 students and recent graduates the opportunity to live and work in another country.
• Auckland Accord calls for strong local leadership
  - The General Meeting of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum on 29 March 2007 backed the Auckland Accord for strong local leadership to make local governance more effective and to deliver a strategic vision to improve local service delivery and support local development, and to respond to global challenges.
• Teach a Man to Fish
  - Teach a Man to Fish aims to broaden access for the poor to a high quality education combining vocational training and entrepreneurship by supporting institutions working in this field to increase their financial self-sufficiency.
• Employment, not microcredit, is the solution
  - This paper from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, published in January 2007, explores the limited benefits of microcredit schemes and its impact on alleviating poverty. It argues that creating employment and increasing productivity is the best solution to poverty and emphasises the Government's role in providing basic public services that have a direct and significant impact on productivity.
• First Peoples Worldwide
  - Assisting Indigenous People in claiming, controlling and utilizing their assets.
• Stanford Social Innovation Review
  - Strategies, tools and ideas for nonprofits, foundations and socially responsible businesses.
• Environmental Sustainability Initiatives in North America and Europe: Churchill Fellowship report by John Hepburn
  - This Churchill Fellowship focused on the creation of alternatives - exploring a small sample of local community environmental sustainability initiatives in the US and UK.
• University Network for Social Entrepreneurship
  - The University Network for Social Entrepreneurship aims to develop and legitimize Social Entrepreneurship as a vocation and a field of intellectual endeavor, and carry SE principles into other sectors.
• International Cooperative Alliance
  - Uniting, representing and serving cooperatives world wide.
• Sierakowo: From Desperation to Inspiration – A Creative Idea That Worked
  - This case study details how Sierakowo, a small village located in north-western Poland, broke out of marginalisation and poverty to create a local knowledge-based economy.
• Social Entrepreneurship Monitor 2006 Report (UK)
  - The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor(GEM) has developed a measurement of early stage entrepreneurial activity by means of an adult population survey in each country.
• Cooperative Childcare website (UK)
  - This website tells you all about the way in which the co-operative childcare service can help you.
• Employee Ownership Options
  - Employee Ownership Options has been set up to provide information on how employee ownership can bring benefits to employees, business owners and trade unionists within the European Union.
• The Global Compact – Corporate Social Responsibility
  - The Global Compact is a direct initiative of the UN Secretary-General which invites companies, international labour and civil society organizations from all regions of the world to work together to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
• Employee Ownership Links and Resources
  - Employee Ownership is one way for business owners to plan for a smooth succession.
• Redefining Progress Website
  - Redefining Progress works with a broad array of partners to shift the economy and public policy towards sustainability.
• The Money Trail - Measuring Your Impact on the Local Economy.
  - The Money Trail is a DIY workbook to measure and prove how effectively different parts of your local economy are working, using a tool developed by the New Economics Foundation.
• Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World - World Development Report 2003.
  - The 2003 World Bank World Development Report examines the relationship between competing policy objectives of reducing poverty, maintaining growth, improving social cohesion and protecting the environment.
• Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
  - The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a long-term, multi-stakeholder, international process whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

National

• Australian Geographic Magazine
  - This is an excellent resource for those interested in rural development. Always full of interesting articles, including specific community initiatives. Available by subscription.
• Employee Ownership and Social Inclusion
  - This article by the Australian Employee Ownership Association talks about the role that employee ownership will play in the newly elected Federal Government's developing social inclusion agenda.
• Water Campaign™
  - The Water Campaign™ is a voluntary capacity building program that supports councils to address water resource management through a performance-based milestone framework. Water Campaign™ councils receive ongoing support and technical information to build their capacity to address water quality and water conservation issues in their daily operations, and in the community in the long-term.
• Young Achievement Australia - Business Skills Program™ for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander participants
  - Through the support of Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), Young Achievement Australia are pleased to offer an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to gain enterprise and employability skills by participating in the Business Skills Program™
• Corporate Responsibility Guide for Australian Directors
  - International law firm Baker and McKenzie has released a Corporate Responsibility Guide for Australian Directors.
• HOT Employers - Australia's Directory of Good Employers™
  - HOT Employers promotes organisations through their own marketing material and the opinions of their employees. We support all organisations that are committed to being good employers. Good employee relations results in better services and products along with higher productivity and profits.
• Rural Small Towns Web Package
  - The package is designed to create a job for a person in each town, which is easy to use, and generates an income stream, along with the opportunity to promote the town under the rural communities banner Southern Cross Communities network.
• WorkVentures
  - WorkVentures exists to build a just, creative and sustainable society by providing quality economic and community development services, with special priority given to unemployed and disadvantaged people.
• Australian Business Arts Foundation - case studies of successful partnerships
  - The following partnerships are presented as examples of good practice in partnerships between cultural organisations and business.
• Securing Successful Partnerships: a Guide for Business and the Arts
  - This guide from the Australian Business Arts Foundation provides a framework to assist cultural organisations and business to develop partnerships.
• Employee Share ownership: a win - win solution
  - How does a director and shareholder turn his equity into a retirement fund and ease out of a business to enjoy semi-retirement? For one Director, employee share ownership was the answer.
• Corporate Social Responsibility Report from the Australian Government 2006
  - The Report of the Australian Government's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services' inquiry into Corporate Responsibility and Triple-Bottom-Line reporting.
• Ecovillage Economics
  - Ecovillage economics is all about the process of developing a sustainable economic component to ecovillages and sustainable developments throughout the world.
• Corporate Responsibility Index
  - The Corporate Responsibility Index is a strategic management tool to enhance the capacity of businesses to develop, measure and communicate best practice in the field of corporate social responsibility.
• Australian Employee Ownership Association
  - The AEOA represents a broad spectrum of interests in employee share ownership and is committed to bipartisanship in its dealings with governments and political parties.
• Community Enterprises through the Bendigo Bank
  - Community Enterprise™ is an initiative of Bendigo Bank which has been created to improve the prospects of communities and to minimise the capital drain they face from the purchase of essential services such as telecommunications and energy.
• Indigenous Stock Exchange
  - The ISX strategy was initiated in Canberra on May 21, 2003 on Ngunawal territory. The goal was to support the development of as many Indigenous businesses as possible in an effort to meet the urgent need for jobs for Indigenous young people especially in regional, remote and very remote Australia.
• Corporate Social Responsibility
  - Definition and Links on Corporate Social Responsibility from the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnerships website
• Community and Social Enterprise: What Role for Government? Paper prepared for the Department for Victorian Communities by Dr. Jo Barraket
  - The paper aims to provide a starting point for discussion about the nature of community and social enterprise in Victoria and the role that government can play in supporting this field of activity.
• Sustainability Reporting and Corporate Responsibility in Australia
  - The Australian Government has taken a number of important steps to encourage environmental and sustainability reporting among companies in this country.
• Aspire Australia – Scenarios for Australia in 2025
  - The Business Council of Australia seeks to make a major contribution to national public policy debate by providing a framework for understanding what the future may hold for business, policy makers and Australians generally over the next 20 years.
• Australian Institute for Corporate Responsibility
  - Practical business partnership resources for small, medium and large businesses and community organisations.
• Social Enterprise – definitions, examples, links and readings
  - Social enterprises are part of the growing "Social Economy" and are committed to commercial viability but their prime motivation is not money; it is building a better society.
• Mutual Benefit: Community/Business Partnerships in the Disability Sector
  - Mutual Benefit is the report of research conducted by ACROD, the National Industry Association for Disability Services, into community and business partnerships in the disability sector.
• Case Studies in Sustainability from Western Australia
  - These case studies document initiatives undertaken in Western Australia that have contributed to increased ecological, social and economic sustainability.
• Asset Development and the Youth Economy - A discussion paper by Cameron Neil
  - This discussion paper, written by Cameron Neil for Brisbane City Council, presents research, opinions and resources on asset development for young people and the importance of youth as consumers in local economies.
• Social Enterprise in Australia: An Introductory Handbook
  - A guide and resource kit for social entrepreneurs published by UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide.
• Just & Sustainable Australia - A National Collaborative Report
  - The Australian Collaboration, a collection of seven peak national community organisations report on a major project to present a national vision for Australia.
• Community Business Partnerships
  - Mutually beneficial collaboration between business and community can provide more efficient and long-term solutions to community issues and build greater social cohesion.
• Why a Third Sector Roundtable?
  - Australians commonly divide the world of organisations into two: business and government. But there are hundreds of thousands of organisations that are neither part of government nor run to make a profit for their owners.
• Compacts Between Governments and the Voluntary Sector - Mark Lyons
  - Examples of treaties/accords between the third sector and the government in the United Kingdom and Canada
• Employee Volunteering - A profitable venture for Business and Communities
  - Employee volunteering involves companies supporting and encouraging the involvement of their staff in the community, for mutual benefit.

no geographical context

• Community Exchange System: 'Currency' without money
  - CES 'currency' is created by its users so it can never be in short supply. So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community skills and services of like value. Join the growing community who have discovered a new way of 'doing' money, a healthy currency that will create a healthy society.
• Share Gift Australia
  - ShareGift Australia is a Not for Profit organisation set up to provide shareholders with a simple way to sell and donate small parcels of shares to charities.
• Unpacking Social Enterprise- A Discussion Paper for Reference
  - On 14 August 2007, Social Alchemy hosted a free public forum at Customs House Sydney to unpack ideas around social enterprise with a focus on youth, enterprise and Indigenous affairs. This entry contains the discussion paper used to support the forum which provides an up to date reference towards understanding social enterprise.
• Guide to the web's best free stuff
  - In this Sydney Morning Herald article, David Flynn provides advice on the best free software available on the internet.
• Challenging How Knowledge is Created - a Presentation by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia
  - Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' keynote presentation, 'Challenging how knowledge is created', delivered during his recent Australian tour, is available online in MP3.
• Business & Social Entrepreneurs Need Partnerships
  - Business has a real opportunity to partner with social and environmental entrepreneurs to help solve global issues, according to a new study.
• Communities, Livelihoods, and Natural Resources: Action Research and Policy Change in Asia
  - This book synthesizes results from a 7-year program of applied research on community-based approaches to natural resource management in Asia
• What Works Best in Reducing Child Poverty: a Benefit or Work Strategy?
  - This paper assesses the extent to which child poverty is associated with the work status of parents.
• Employee Ownership - is it needed?
  - A paper on the role of employee ownership in local economic development by Alan Greig.
• Eco-friendly Communities - Promoting Sustainable Living and Working Resource Kit
  - This practical kit is a package of resources and suggestions for a structured but very flexible program to increase community understanding about living sustainably.
• Readings on Sustainable Community Development
  - Online Readings, books and websites on the E-Dialogues for Sustainable Development website.
• Social Entrepreneurship: Some Important Distinctions
  - A paper by Jerr Boschee and Jim McClurg argues that innovation is not the same as entrepreneurship and that unless a non-profit organisation is generating earned revenue, it is not acting in an entrepreneurial manner.
• The Body Shop - Business and Social Responsibility
  - A very thought provoking and practical paper, examining the issues and realities of the community sector forming partnerships with the business sector.
• Community Sector Banking
  - A joint venture between Bendigo Bank Ltd. and Community 21 Ltd (C21) has established Community Sector Banking to provide financial products and services to the community sector.
• Corporate Social Responsibility - Challenges and Opportunities for Government
  - "Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment." EU Green Paper: Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility.
• No Interest Loan Schemes (NILS)
  - A community-run program lending money to low income earners who have difficulty accessing affordable commercial credit.
• Corporate Social Responsibility - Web Sites
  - A list of useful web sites relating to Corporate Social Responsibility.
• The Role of Business in Community Capacity Building: An Alternative Approach
  - Business organisations keen to contribute to community well being as part of a social responsibility strategy should give consideration to involvement with Community Capacity Building
• Voluntary Treasurer's Handbook For Small Non-Profit Organisations
• Community Economic Development Action Strategies
  - This article looks at sustainable economic development action strategies based on a framework of six broad and inter-related approaches to local business, local economy and community capacity building.
• Strategic Planning for Economic Development
  - Through the planning process a community can choose priorities and allocate resources to work towards its preferred future.
• Effective economic development - What makes it happen?
  - Key ingredients against which all communities can evaluate themselves and prepare for economic development.

NSW

• Standard Chart of Accounts Project
  - Matrix On Board is working with the NSW Department of Community Services to inform the Human Service government agencies and all the NGO funded services about the benefits of adopting a Standard Chart of Accounts.
• Aboriginal Business Resources
  - The NSW Department of State and Regional Development assists Aboriginal people to start-up and stay in business through a range of services and programs delivered in Sydney and regional areas.
• Employee Buyouts Guidebook - revised edition 2006
  - The Mercury Centre has revised and updated the "Employee Buyouts" Guidebook. The Guide sets out what an employee buy-out is, when a buy-out is appropriate and why a buy-out should be considered. It also deals with the forms of buy-outs and the steps in performing a buy-out.
• Grow Sydney – helping communities grow their regions
  - GROW is a non-profit, community-based organisation which works with business, community and across the three sectors of government to take action that will help the growth of Sydney and its regions.
• Support for Businesses in NSW
  - The New South Wales Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD) provides information and contacts to assist new businesses to establish in NSW.
• Three Social Enterprise Stories
  - Three stories recount the success of community involvement in positive change in the Sydney suburbs of Claymore, Minto and Campbelltown.
• Co-operative Organisations
  - This paper is from the The Registry of Co-operatives & Associations in the NSW Office of Fair Trading, which supports and develops the Co-operative Sector and its potential to assist regional and rural communities exploit their development opportunities.
• Building Community Capacity: Assessing Corporate Sustainability Report
  - This report presents the outcomes of a project in which the Total Environment Centre worked with partners to develop a “toolkit” designed to enhance the ability of community sector organisations and individuals, to better influence corporate sector progress towards real ecologically and socially sustainable development.
• Preparing a business plan
  - A blueprint for starting, maintaining or expanding a small business, from the NSW Small Business website.
• Making Dollars and Sense out of Community Events - A Resource Kit
  - The Resource kit provides practical tools and tips to help businesses and events organisers work together to maximise the economic advantage of community events.
• Steps to forming a Co-operative (NSW)
  - This information from the NSW Department of Fair Trading outlines the steps that need to be followed to form a co-operative in New South Wales.
• Kit for seniors computing clubs
  - The Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association (ASCCA) has developed a kit to assist those who want to see a Seniors Computer Club established in their area.

Riverina/Murray

• Joining Forces with Young People: A Practical Guide to Collaboration for Youth Employment
  - This report has been provided by the international Youth Employment Network to guide youth organisations to facilitate and motivate young people’s participation in youth employment policy making and implementation.
• Growing small communities – Coolamon’s success story
  - Liz Lawson’s contribution to the panel discussion at the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference describing how Coolamon, a small town in the ‘shadow’ of Wagga Wagga has managed to attract tourism and new residents to the town, providing the catalyst for the local economy to grow and generate employment opportunities.

South East NSW

• Nimmitabel – Top of the Range: Building a better future
  - Marjory Kobold’s presentation at the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference showcasing the history, achievements, products and business potential of Nimmitabel, NSW and surrounding districts.