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Can we have a little “precented times” …again?
It’s been an increasingly tough year to be a human let alone a business in the past few months. More than ever, we are witnessing extreme weather events, climate pressures, unfolding systemic societal and market failures and cultural dis-unity. That’s why more than ever, we need to focus and re-focus our endeavours to offer more than just business as usual, more than just aid in hard times, and more than just corporate social responsibility. While aid, CSR and donations are all urgently needed to assist those in peril both here and abroad, we also urgently need a policy reframe to help us adapt and adjust our systems to meet the demands of a changing climate. Social enterprises are underpinned by our resolute demand that social, cultural and environmental systems change must lead and drive progressive economic frameworks.
After reviewing the proposed federal budget, we still have a long way to go to shift the paradigm if we are to reach beyond a baseline of ‘net zero emissions'. Of course, it makes economic sense to live within the limits of the resources we use, but we must also lean in to address the social, environmental and cultural capital.
How can we all help?
At QSEC, we are diligently designing programs for regional hub activation alongside the ecosystem to help grow the social enterprise movement across Queensland. Our aim is to identify the solid regenerative business solutions which social enterprises have built to address social, cultural and environmental issues. We intend to connect with industry and business partners who have expressed a keen interest in changing their models to include social impact in their procurement chains. We are building promotional tools to help demonstrate the true value social enterprises offer which will attract the general public, government and businesses alike in the upcoming Queensland Small Business Month in May. Similarly, we hope to present the Queensland social enterprise value to a global audience at the Social Enterprise World Forum in September. The promotional tools are being designed by Rachel Whitworth (House of Eden Studio and Hello Good World), ably assisted by videography Joshua McGuire and assembled for web by our friends at Green Fox Studio. The promotional campaign will feature stills, stories and videos from diverse social enterprises from across Queensland, each making a difference in their own way. We are immensely proud of the work social enterprises do every day in our communities.
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