Canberra is an exciting place to be with so much potential and inspiration. Thursday’s ‘Festival of Ambitious Ideas‘ event showcasing Canberra’s social innovation was no exception. The Festival of Ambitious Ideas is held every year and hosted by Canberra’s Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre, supported by the Snow Foundation and Canberra Airport. Using the ‘Ignite’ format, 13 speakers presented their social innovations in 5 minutes on 10 slides. Such an inspiring group of people doing exciting work, check them out below:
- Georgina Byron from The Snow Foundation – Supporting Social Innovation
- The Snow Foundation is proud to support the Festival of Ambitious Ideas and three non-profit organisations:
- Homes 4 Homes – voluntary scheme for home owners and developers to donate 0.1% of their property price at time of sale with funds raised used to build affordable houses;
- Good360 – connecting excess stock to charities;
- Global Sisters – market led and technology based solution for women who want to start up or grow a business, particularly focused on refugees, migrants, indigenous Australians, at-risk youth, single mothers, and the long term unemployed.
- Craig Fitzgerald from Aspen Medical – Embedding a Social Purpose within a For-Profit Business: Aspen’s Journey
- The importance of having a sustainable business model
- Ensure procurement is from a social enterprise
- Aspen Medical is a ‘B’ Corporation
- Cathleen Jackson, Niamh Martin and Deakin Jewell from Radford College – Food Rescue Program: A Mystery Box Challenge
- Partnered with OzHarvest
- Deborah Evans from TJILLARI Justice – It Takes a Village
- It takes a village to raise a child
- The solutions are to develop not discipline children
- Developed a ‘Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights’
- Melanie Saballa, Director of Child Development and Family Programs from ACT Government – Better Services, Better Outcomes
- The ACT Government has a social inclusion and equality agenda across Directorates and sectors
- Is proud to be working with Lighthouse and Westpac Bank to deliver a microcredit program for business start-ups in the ACT
- Pure Pod is an ACT Microcredit success story
- Noreen Vu from OrangeSky Laundry – OrangeSky Laundry in CBR
- Provides mobile clothes washing and drying for homeless people
- But… Its not just about washing clothes, its about having meaningful conversations
- James Gutteridge from Teach for Australia – Bridging the Education Gap
- The postcode in which you are born can radically affect your future
- But this disparity is a solvable problem
- The best and most effective way to improve educational outcomes is to improve teacher quality
- Michael Bones from Future Super – Superannuation at the Centre of Fossil Fuel Divestment
- Future Super is a ‘B’ Corporation
- Is part of the growing ‘people power’ divestment movement
- The only Super Fund in Australia that has no investments in fossil fuels, as well as an ethical investment framework
- Fossil fuels are a bad ‘bet’ – stranded assets
- Frances Crimsons from YWCA Canberra – Empowerment and Innovation at the YWCA Canberra Clubhouse
- Canberra is positioning itself as the innovation capital of Australia
- Encouraging people to move into the region
- But for many children already living in Canberra, there is a large digital divide and poverty of opportunity
- The Canberra Clubhouse is an innovative, creative, out-of-school learning space where young people from underserved communities can work with adult mentors to develop new skills, explore their own ideas, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology
- Ian Ross and Lee Harrison from Homeshare – Community Connections Homeshare Programme
- Works on a reciprocal principle – the householder (person with a disability) provides reduced rent / no rent accommodation in exchange for the companionship and pre specified support (usually 10 hrs per week) provided by the homesharer.
- Richard Etherington from Kokonut Pacific
- For profit social enterprise, fair trade and NASAA organic certified
- Invented Direct Micro Expelling to produce virgin coconut oil
- Value adds products and sell through its Niulife brand
- Nathan Steggel from Windlab – Socially Responsible Wind Farm Development
- Socially responsible requires community engagement
- Community engagement decreases community conflict and provides a social licence to operate
- Coonooer Bridge Wind Farm – Shares partly owned landholders neighbouring the site
- Matt Tripet from The Fly Program – The Fly Program
The Fly Program from Screencraft on Vimeo.
