OnImpact, the Australian Social Innovation Forum, has been developed to provide registered participants the opportunity to share information, facilitate networks, participate in discussions and engage in ongoing collaborations between government and the social enterprise, philanthropic and corporate sectors.

OnImpact is a place to develop ideas and priorities to build innovative and effective solutions to social challenges and opportunities to build the social economy. It is a forum through which individuals and organizations from all sectors are invited to contribute.

OnImpact, the Australian Social Innovation Forum, has been developed to provide registered participants the opportunity to share information, facilitate networks, participate in discussions and engage in ongoing collaborations between government and the social enterprise, philanthropic and corporate sectors.OnImpact is a place to develop ideas and priorities to build innovative and effective solutions to social challenges and opportunities to build the social economy.

It is a forum through which individuals and organizations from all sectors are invited to contribute.The Australian Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations is genuinely interested in your contributions and has facilitated creation of this forum to cultivate dialogue from a broad range of contributors. Feedback and contributions will inform and shape future policy directions and how we work with you. We will also utilise the site for formal consultations and other processes.

We hope that contributions to the forum will also be used by other participants to create a peer learning network in which new ideas and approaches are shared and participants build new networks for collaboration and support. As a vital collaboration space, the forum is not intended to be a focus for formal government responses to advocacy or for requests for funding.

The Social Enterprise Development and Investment Fund (SEDIF) will provide financial products and related capacity building to social enterprises in Australia.

The Government has allocated $20 million as a cornerstone contribution, to be used in partnership with private and philanthropic investment, to seed the establishment of specialised investment funds that assist social enterprises with their growth capital finance and support needs.

This action is aimed at stimulating the social impact investment market in Australia through increasing access to capital for social enterprises as they work to create jobs and support highly disadvantaged people and communities throughout Australia.

The SEDIF will contribute to development of a powerful social sector capable of playing a significant role alongside Government in improving the lives of individuals and communities and tackling social issues.

This is short notice but SiiWA has been offered two tables at Inventing the Future of Energy: How do we ensure key community requirements are met?

Full details are below but the event has some of the leading innovative and knowledgeable thinkers from the United States and Australia on how we can best shape our energy future.

Usually tickets are $370 however I can offer you a significant discount at only $70 each. Places are limited and I need to have a RSVP by 9:00am Monday 17th of Wednesday (this coming Wednesday) to confirm the tables.

The social impact of a shortage of energy is already being felt in WA and is going to be an increasing area of concern that provides ample opportunity to Social Entrepreneurs and Innovators.

Once again the discount is significant but I need an email response to brodie.mcculloch@siiwa.org by 9:00am Monday morning at the latest.

We seem to have come to a general consensus that we need to do something about our level of energy consumption in the developed world, but what should that something be? What does our pattern of energy consumption – and production – need to look like as we Invent the Future and Shape Western Australia from 2010 to 2050? Join CEDA WA to discuss, with some of the most innovative and knowledgeable thinkers from the United States and Australia, how we can best shape our energy future.

Meet the speakers

Mr. James Kunstler
Author, Editorialist, Blogger

New York-based author of The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency James Kunstler has long been recognized as a fierce critic of suburban sprawl and an advocate for more livable, sustainable community planning. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Sunday Magazine and Op-Ed page, where he has written on environmental and economic issues.

Dr. Richard Weller
UWA Winthrop Professor of Landscape and Architecture

Richard Weller is Winthrop Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Western Australia (UWA) where he is well known for combining teaching, research and design practice. Richard’s recent planning work was published by the UWA Press in 2009 under the title of ‘Boomtown 2050’: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City. He is a lead consultant for the new Perth waterfront development.

Mr. Rod Hayes
Managing Director
Horizon Power

Rod Hayes manages the production and sale of power for one of the largest distribution areas in the world, spanning 2.3 million square kilometres.

Mr. Rob Moltoni
Managing Director
Moltoni Group

Moltoni Energy focuses on the conversion of waste products and the harnessing of natural resources to create ‘clean energy’. With over 40 million tonnes of waste being produced in Australia each year, the company focuses on how waste is treated overall and how it can be part of the solution to generate more recoverable resources and renewable energy.

Date Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Time 10.30am to 2.00pm

Venue Hyatt Regency 99 Adelaide Terrace Perth

On the 20th of September we ran the first event with WACOSS based around unlocking and empowering social innovation in Western Australia. The day was facilitated by Jason Clarke and involved a panel discussion involving a number of members from WA and interstate organisations based around Social Innovation, Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship.

You can see the photos from the day here.

SocialTraders put together a summary of the event here and Andrew Outhwaite from Pollinators put together a great roundup of the day here.

This event has provided a good overview of where we are now and where we need to go so over the coming months you will see a number of changes to the SiiWA website along with some of the key objectives of SiiWA.

The Centre for Social Impact is holding a lecture in Western Australia called Social Business: Harnessing a new kind of Capitalism. You can register here and more details are in the flier below.

The CEO of the School for Social Entrepreneurs; Benny Callaghan will be attending the Unlocking and Empowering Social Innovation in Western Australia on the 20th of September. The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Australia is a new nonprofit venture dedicated to identifying, developing and supporting social entrepreneurs and raising awareness and understanding of social entrepreneurship.

The School for Social Entrepreneurs is one of the partner organisations supporting the event it will be valuable in providing their insight into what they have learnt about Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship through their work over the past two years in Australia and over ten years in the UK.

More on Benny Callaghan -

Benny brings to the School his extensive experience in the community sector and a passion and expertise in experiential and action learning. He has worked for and supported a number of social ventures in Australia, Rwanda, and the Philippines. In particular, he has had a long-standing involvement internationally with the Outward Bound organisation. Benny has a Master of Education and is the process of studying Futures and Strategic Foresight at Swinburne University in Melbourne. He is dedicated to enabling individuals and organisations to develop and reach their potential. Benny is passionate about the social sector and having a broad impact on the wellbeing of communities through active citizenship and social entrepreneurship.

More about the School for Social Entrepreneurs -

We see social entrepreneurs as people who recognise social problems and use entrepreneurial principles to organise, create, and manage a venture to affect social change.

Based on the highly successful SSE in the UK which has been operating for 10 years, SSE Australia runs year-long programs to support entrepreneurial individuals to establish effective, sustainable community projects and initiatives that meet social and community needs.

Below is an update of the Agenda for the “Unlocking and Empowering Social Innovation in Western Australia” event on the 20th. There are a number of speakers flying in to provide an interstate perspective as well as a number of local speakers to provide an up to date view of Western Australia and where we are now. The focus of the day is to see how we can progress the area of Social Innovation as well as getting people thinking about how it applies to them, their organisation and their community.
Agenda

SEWF Debate: There’s no business like social business from Rowan Attenborough on Vimeo.

During late 2009 Melbourne hosted the Social Enterprise World Forum to start looking at Social Enterprise in Australia. If you have some time it is well worth watching the above debate on “There is no Business like Social Business”.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.